Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Shrewd Psychological Ploy
SHILOH UPSTAGES FARMINGTON AT DISTRICT VOLLEYBALL
Nathan Bodenstein figured out how to deprive Farmington of its advantage of getting the No. 1 seeding for the District 4A-1 volleyball tournament last week at Huntsville.
Just ask. Employing a shrewd psychological tactic the Shiloh Christian coach requested to have Farmington give up its preferred status of playing an early semfinal game, which the conference champion receives as a reward.
Bodenstein found himself in an unfamiliar position coming into district third place in the standings after Farmington broke a streak of 10-straight years in which Shiloh Christian won a conference championship in volleyball.
The Lady Cardinals ran the 4A-1 Conference table winning all 12 league volleyball matches including an Oct. 1 sweep of Shiloh Christian by scores of 25-17, 25-23, 27-25 at Cardinal Arena.
Making matters worse for Shiloh Christian, the Lady Saints dropped a 5-set loss at Harrison on Sept. 10 (25-16, 21-25, 22-25, 25-21, 15-12) and came up short 25-20, 25-22, 25-19 at Berryville on Sept. 19. This placed Shiloh Christian third overall in the standings and seeded No. 2 among the East division of the 4A-1 coming into district tournament play.
Looking ahead at the state tournament bracket, Bodenstein, who led Shiloh Christian to state crowns in 2015 and 2017, didn’t want on the lower side where he figured perennial power, Valley View (36-2, 16-0) would likely wind up by winning the 4A Northeast District tournament.
The best route to get to the top tier of the state tournament bracket was to win the 4A-1 Northwest District tournament, but Bodenstein didn’t have the luxury of the top seed he has been accustomed to.
That belonged to Farmington, which won an unprecedented conference championship and received a bye into the District 4A-1 Northwest tournament and automatic bid to state. The Lady Cardinals stood in the way. If Bodenstein was going to get where he figured the Lady Saints needed to be, he was going to have to downplay Farmington’s top-seeding and neutralize their advantage in the tournament bracket.
Bodenstein made his move three matches into last week’s District 4A-1 volleyball tournament hosted by Huntsville at the Eagle gym after Gentry, No. 5 West, had already played back-to-back matches going five sets in a victory (21-25, 25-12, 25-15, 23-25, 15-9) over Huntsville and three sets (25-22, 27-25, 27-25) loss to Gravette on Monday, Oct. 21.
Bodenstein asked for another team’s time slot because, according to Farmington assistant volleyball coach Diandre Bennett, he didn’t want his team to have to play back-to-back matches on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Bodenstein succeeded in getting the focus of what the conference champion had attained and diverted attention onto the Lady Saints.
Farmington coach Mike Howard, in his second year as head coach, agreed to the change, saying, “I wouldn’t want to play that way. You shouldn’t have to play four sets (as Shiloh did against Gravette on Tuesday, Oct. 22), then play five sets (as the Lady Saints did before defeating Farmington, 20-25, 25-27, 25-23, 25-18, 15-9.”
“We got up 2-0. They fought back. Sometimes that happens. You win some and you lose some,” Howard said.
Howard said he found out about the schedule change late the night of Monday, Oct. 21.
“It was 8:30 p.m. That’s when we found out about it,” Howard said. “It was late for everybody. It was unfortunate, the timing, but it was the right call for everybody.”
The loss dropped Farmington into the District 4A-1 Northwest consolation match against Pea Ridge, which lost to Berryville in the other semifinal.