Farmington Girls Notch Second Conference Victory

FARMINGTON — Thursday Maumelle came calling and Farmington answered the 5A West bell with a solid 3-game sweep of the visiting Hornets, 25-18, 25-16, and 25-17, to up their league record to 2-3.

This was prior to a visit to Clarksville on Tuesday and only one more match remains in the first half of 5A West round-robin of play against Vilonia scheduled for 5 p.m. at home Thursday.

The victory kept Farmington’s post-season hopes alive, which seems sort of strange this early in the season, but the reality is with no district volleyball tournament winning conference matches is crucial to achieving a state tournament berth.

The key conference win came one week after Farmington recorded their first- ever 5A West volleyball win, 25-17, 24-26, 25-13, and 25-23, against Greenbrier on Sept. 11, then dropped a tough road match at Harrison, 23-25, 26-24, 23-25, and 14-25, on Sept. 16.

With Farmington leading 1-0, and holding onto a 19-14 cushion in game two after a Sherra Irvin kill, sophomore Callie Harper subbed in to serve and dished up an ace, the first of 4-straight po in ts Fa rm ing ton earned with her serving effectively putting the game away.

Maumelle broke the run with a kill but short- circuited any hope of a comeback with a bad serving sending Farmington to game-point which the Lady Cardinals obliged with Irvin (dig), Brooke Larkin ( set) and Alexis Shelley ( kill) polishing off the final point.

Larkin was able to turn digs into sets empowering teammates to score off a second hit more than once during the match and Farmington coach Marshall Ward liked what he saw.

“Sherra has been hitting like that since halfway through last season,” Ward said, adding, “The two-hit offense is great because the other team’s not ready for it.”

In game three, Harper served for 3- consecutive points helping Farmington overcome an 0-2 start. Ward has been pleased with Harper’s contributions, noting sometimes when 10th graders are inserted they’re a little nervous and won’t produce.

Not the case with Harper, daughter of Farmington head baseball coach and defensive coordinator Jay Harper.

“If she’s going to be that strong and give me good serves without errors, she’ll be serving,” Ward said.

Farmington broke away from a 7-7 tie with a 13-8 run to extend their lead to 20-15. Mackenzie Sill, who had some clutch hits, recorded a kill from the left outside hitter spot and Maria McPherson added an ace edging Farmington closer to victory at 22-16. For the second time in the match, Maumelle put Farmington at game-point with a service error. Larkin served for the win and Maumelle’s libero attempted a cross-court hit but only found the net and Farmington completed the sweep winning game three, 25-17.

“Mackenzie hit a couple of off-speed shots. She sees the court well and will hit what I call finesse shots. Basically, they might not be powerful but they’re where the other team isn’t,” Ward said. “She also had some powerful shots which is what you want.”

Farmington got off to a rough start at home in conference play against Little Rock Christian on Sept. 4, losing in three straight games, 25-17, 25-19, and 25- 18; then showed improvement on the road despite losing, 25-23, 24-26, 25- 23, 25- 14, at Harrison Sept. 9.

On Sept. 11, Farmington defeated Greenbrier 3-1 at home, winning, 25-17, 24-26, 25-13, 25-23, to record their first-ever victory in the 5A West.

Despite the challenges, Ward likes the effort he is seeing.

“The girls are working hard to improve offensively, and the more we do that, the more successful we will be.”