Lady Tigers Level Lincoln

PRAIRIE GROVE — In their second season at the 4A classification level it is obvious that the Lincoln Lady Wolves volleyball squad is an up and coming program with a bright future.

On Thursday the Wolves (4-11, 1-3) found themselves pitted against the Lady Tigers (2-3, 1-2), one of the more established programs in the 4A and a semi finalist last season; and while the Tigers lost a sizable amount of talent to graduation they were still able to teach the relatively newcomers a lesson with a three games to one victory.

It was the visiting Wolves who looked more prepared to play in the opening contest, with kills from Jaycie Neely, Tara Myers and Shelby Rowe helping Lincoln dash out to a 9-4 lead. The Tigers whittled away at the lead, cutting the deficit to one point, 17-16, following a Bonnie Kragel kill.

The Wolves maintained the advantage until another Kragel kill later in the contest gave the Tigers the lead 23-22. With the score tied 24-24, Prairie Grove’s Jaelyn Kilburn closed out the contest with a soft drop shot into open space, which she then followed with an ace, giving the Tigers the 26-24 game one win.

“We’ve started just about every contest ahead, then we just let it go,” said Wolves’ coach Adrian Risley. “The biggest letdown for us is on serve-receive. That is when we let teams go on six and seven point runs and you can’t do that and still hope to win.”

Prairie Grove continued to ride their momentum in the second frame, with the Wolves unable to stop Kelsey Webb who punished Lincoln with five kills and one block. The Tigers also benefited from five aces, three by Kilburn and two from Marie Gregson, which combined with Webb’s prowess at the net, allowed the Tigers to claim the game two victory 25-14.

Down two games to zero, the Wolves could have packed it in and gone quietly into that good night, however they avoided the sweep with a 26-24 victory in the third frame. Kills from Neely and Gabbi Barnum helped stake the Wolves to a 4-0 lead, but Prairie Grove responded with a 5-0 run capped off by a Kilburn kill, making the score 5-4. Back-to-back aces by Danielle Cossey late in the contest put Lincoln ahead 22-21, and then later a kill by Alex Hutchens followed by a behind the head drop shot from Myers seized the 26-24 win for the Wolves, which also cut the deficit to two games to one.

Unable to complete the sweep, the Tigers instead responded to the game three loss by dominating the fourth and final game. Webb and Kragel each tallied three kills in the frame, but even more impressive was Kilburn who held serve for 15 consecutive points. With the game tied at 8-8, Kilburn began her service streak and didn’t relinquish the serve until the Tigers were leading 23- 8.