Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Prairie Grove Storms Back To State
For the second time in the last three seasons Prairie Grove is state-bound in volleyball.
Prairie Grove (14-7) won the third-place match at the District 4A-1 tournament held at Gentry last week in straight sets by scores of 25-21, 25-16, and 25-22 against Huntsville (10-16).
The Lady Tigers defeated Gravette on Oct. 20 before losing to Berryville in the tournament semifinals Oct. 21.
Qualifying for state didn’t come easy for Prairie Grove. Facing Gravette, fresh off a victory over district tourney host and Arkansas 59 rival, Gentry, the Lady Tigers dropped the first two sets, 14-25 and 22-25.
“When we played Gravette on Monday it went to five sets. We started off sluggish and it took us awhile to wake up. Gravette played very well and played with heart,” said first-year Prairie Grove coach Lyndsey Layes.
Transformed by the renewing of their minds, the Lady Tigers dominated game three, 25-11, and broke the Lions’ momentum going to take games four and five, 25-18, 15-8, to advance with a 3-2 match victory.
“It was huge for us to come back from behind and win that match,” Layes said, praising overall team play. “Landry Laird led with 22 digs. Kelsey Webb and Riley Gerwig had 5 blocks apiece. Kelsey Webb led with 15 Kills. [The] team had a total of 17 aces.”
Last Tuesday, Prairie Grove played Berryville and the match went to four sets with the Lady Tigers coming up short after winning gameone, 25-23, then dropping the next three, 18-25, 10-25, 13-25.
“We came out extremely strong and hungry for the win during the first set,” Layes said. “After that Berryville started to play their game and gained the momentum beating us.”
Gerwig led the team with 4 blocks and Webb had 8 kills with Marie Gregson contributing 5 Kills.
On Thursday Prairie Grove took to the court against Huntsville for the third/ fourth seeding for the state tournament in the district consolation match. The Lady Tiger prevailed in 3 straight sets, 25-21, 25-16, 25-22. Webb topped the team with 11 Kills, Bonnie Kragel served 6 aces, Webb had 3 blocks and Laird recorded 21 digs.
Layes was feeling elated with the successful run to qualify for state.
“It feels incredible to make it to state as a first year head coach,” Layes said. MARK HUMPHREY IS A SPORTS WRITER FOR ENTERPRISELEADER.