Shiloh Christian to face Brookland again
SPRINGDALE — Shiloh Christian never trailed in its Class 4A volleyball state tournament semifinal en route to a 3-0 win (25-14, 25-13, 25-15) win over Fountain Lake on Thursday at the Court of Champions at Shiloh Christian High School.
The Lady Saints (29-6) will get another shot against defending state champion Brookland, which swept Gravette on Thursday, in the final at 5 p.m. Saturday in Hot Springs. The Lady Bearcats defeated Shiloh Christian in the final a year ago.
Lady Saints Coach Nathan Bodenstein said he talked to his team about just leaving it all out on the court in their final home match.
“I know [Fountain Lake Coach] Tina [Moore] and she’s an excellent coach,” Bodenstein said. “I said. ‘They’re one win away]. You don’t think those girls want to go the finals? Yes they do.’ But we had a great walk-through this morning, no nerves. It was just fun and when we’re having fun, it’s a fun team to watch.
“Tina just came up to me [after the match] and said, ‘We just haven’t seen speed like that in a while or ever all year.’”
Middle hitter Audrey Pender led the way with 17 kills for Shiloh Christian, while Chloe Blessing added 12 kills. Setter Laila Creighton dished out 41 assists and also chipped in with five kills. Bella Bonanno anchored the defense with 16 digs to go with three aces.
The Lady Bearcats (36-4-1) were pushed in a big way by Gravette, which hadn’t made a state tournament appearance since 2015. But ultimately the defending state champions found a way to advance with a 3-0 win (28-26, 25-16, 27-25).
The Lady Lions (27-4) had a couple of set points in the opener. Back-to-back aces by Piper Batie gave Gravette a 25-24 lead and they took a 26-25 lead. But Brookland responded each time and the final one with three points in a row for the win.
The Lady Bearcats also wiped out a 24-20 deficit, tied it at 25 and scored the final two points to close out the match.
Evan Polsgrove led the Brookland attack with 12 kills and added five digs. Addy Vowell chipped in eight kills. Maddie Smith contributed 9 kills, 3 aces and 6 blocks. Setter Chloe Rodriguez also finished with 30 assists, 5 kills and 7 digs.
Brookland Coach Nancy Rodriguez said her team’s experience showed.
“I feel like this is a lot of ‘they’ve been here before,’ ” Rodriguez said. “I challenged them [with], ‘We haven’t lost a set here in the state tournament, so there’s your challenge to go figure out how to do it.’ I’m 100% a believer that the third set in a game like this is hard to close out.
“But I think having the experience. There’s a lot of seniors and some juniors on the court that have played and I think that was the difference. She also credited Gravette. “I thought [Gravette] played really well,” Rodriguez said. “I think they set a really high ball, so sometimes you’re not used to that and it’s a different block that maybe we’d play … and they had some really good swingers. I was very impressed with them.”
Gravette Coach Britney Davis said her group’s hard work has paid off.
“We did 6 a.m.’s [practices] all summer and they never complained once,” Davis said. “They knew what it was going to take to do this. Our goal was to make it to state and I think they kind of surprised themselves how buying in to a philosophy and making core values and creating a healthy culture, what it can actually do.”