Sharp makes AHSCA All-Star volleyball team
Shaylon Sharp is going to get one more chance to play volleyball representing the Siloam Springs volleyball team.
Sharp was one of 14 volleyball standouts named to the West AllStars roster for this year’s Arkansas High School Coaches Association All-Star Volleyball Match, which will be played at 6 p.m. Friday, June 22, at the Farris Center on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
Sharp, a Missouri Southern signee, was an all-state selection in Class 6A as a junior in 2016 before she tore her ACL during the offseason between her junior and senior year during club season.
Sharp missed the first 10 matches of her senior year, and the Lady Panthers struggled to a 1-9 record without her. But Sharp returned for the final 23 matches and Siloam Springs went 16-7 in that span.
The highlight of the season was Sharp’s performance in the Class 6A state quarterfinals against Marion. She smashed 22 kills and had 27 digs as the Lady Panthers rallied from a 2-0 hole to come back and beat Marion 3-2. The victory snapped a streak of six straight seasons where Siloam Springs was defeated in the quarterfinals. The Lady Panthers (17-16) lost to eventual state champion Greenwood the next afternoon in the state semifinals.
Despite missing 10 matches, Sharp finished second on the team with 237 kills and a .370 hitting percentage. She earned All-Conference honors in the 6A-West and was named to the Northwest Arkansas DemocratGazette’s All-Area Volleyball Team.
Sharp’s club team, Ozark Juniors, won the USA Volleyball Girls Junior National Championship in 2015 before her sophomore year.
She is also the second member of her family to play in the All-Star volleyball match, following in the footsteps of her older sister, Makenzie, who played in the event in 2012 and went on to play at Lyon College.
Other members of the West All-Stars include Fayetteville’s Ella May Powell and Haley Warner, Greenwood’s Lexi Castillow , Harrison’s Isabella Gibbany and Julianna Cramer, Fountain Lake’s Olivia Cox, Booneville’s Haley Carter, Paris’ Jenna Lowry and Riley Owen, Springdale Har-Ber’s Lauren Thompson, Bentonville’s Timber Riley and Emma Palasak and Rogers’ Hannah Martin.
The head coach of the West girls is April Mattix of Harrison and she will be assisted by Wes Davis of Paris, Tina Moore of Fountain Lake and Jessica Phelan of Fayetteville.