Lady Cyclones finish off Lady Panthers

Siloam Springs stormed back from an 8-0 deficit to win game three 25-20 to avoid a sweep at home against defending 6A champion Russellville on Thursday night.

The Lady Panthers couldn’t muster the same kind of magic in game four.

The Lady Cyclones recovered from a slow start of their own in game four and used a 13-0 run to finish off the Lady Panthers 3-1 (25-14, 25-8, 2025, 25-11) in a 7A/6A-Central Conference game inside Panther Activity Center.

“We’ve been struggling finishing matches,” said Russellville coach Cindy Jones. “I told them we’ve got to be tough and finish it.”

The Lady Cyclones improved to 2- 1 against 6A competition. Siloam Springs dropped to 3-12 overall and 2-5 through the first half of league play. Siloam Springs is 1-2 against 6A competition. Greenwood finished the first half of the league 3- 0 and leads the 6A race, while Alma is 0-3.

Lady Cylones senior Ashton Sitkowski hammered home 19 kills for the match, while senior Madison McKinley had eight kills and senior Shameka Ealy had nine blocks.

Russellville won game one and then throttled the Lady Panthers in game two and it looked like game three might go a similar route early.

The Lady Cyclones raced out to a 8-0 lead before serving the ball out of bounds to break the string.

Madisyn Fullerton helped the Lady Panthers get back in the match with three straight aces and back-t0-back blocks from Madison Cooper and Haley Stewart tied the match at 11. Russellville quickly regained the lead 14-11, but Siloam Springs got kills from Shaylon Sharp, Allie Bowman and Hadlee Hollenback to tie the match at 16.

A Cooper kill gave Siloam Springs a 19-18 lead they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of game three.

Siloam Springs coach Rose Cheek-Willis said her setters made an adjustment which kept the Lady Cyclones off balance in game three.

Siloam Springs started hot in game four as well, taking a 3-0 lead before Russellville reeled off the next 13 points.

Sharp led Siloam Springs with 11 kills, while Ellie Lampton had seven kills. Cooper had five kills, while Chloe Price had nine assists and Meg Gray 13 assists and 10 digs.

Fullerton led defensively with 22 digs and four aces. Sam Wetzel had seven digs and two aces.

The Lady Panthers play at Van Buren on Tuesday. Siloam Springs swept Van Buren 3-0 earlier this season.