Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Coach Excited About Lady Lions’ Future
HUNTSVILLE — Gravette coach Britney Davis came out of the 4A-1 District tournament excited for the future of Lady Lion volleyball despite a four-set (25-22, 25-22, 23-25, 25-18) loss to Shiloh Christian in the quarterfinals.
The loss left the Lady Lions one win short of attaining a state tournament bid — not bad for a program that began with a new coach in July.
“We were excited. We were not intimidated by Shiloh or any other top program,” Davis said. “We know what we’re capable of and our girls have been working really, really hard. They played hard. We definitely had some weaknesses in our defense, but taking note of that and we’re going to work on it and we’ll be ready to face whoever next year. We don’t really care about who the powerhouse is, we’re just here to compete and play the best volleyball we can.”
Shiloh Christian took a 2-0 lead threatening to sweep the match before Gravette rallied in the third set.
Senior Alexis Gerner broke a 21-21 tie by serving an ace. Classmate Madison Mcdaniel pounded back-to-back kills bringing Gravette to gamepoint with a 24-21 lead.
In a tournament filled with controversial officiating, Gravette appeared to have nailed down another kill which would have ended the game, but the officials ruled in favor of Shiloh Christian instead, awarding the point to the Lady Saints, who were still alive down 24-22.
Davis appealed the call to no avail and Shiloh Christian snuck even closer by getting the next point, trimming Gravette’s lead to 24-23.
Mcdaniel would have none of any further comeback by the Lady Saints, however, and promptly spiked a game-winner sending the match into a fourth set with Gravette claiming a 25-23 victory.
Shiloh jumped out to an 8-1 lead in game-four but Gravette mounted a furious rally, forging a 7-2 run to pull within 11-8. Perry had a block, Julia Matteson added a kill, Skye Butler added an ace, and sophomore Nicole Vogt got a kill during the run.
Gravette stayed within 16-13 following Gerner’s kill and still in the match trailing 21-17, but Shiloh Christian closed out the set with a 4-1 run to claim the match, three games to one.
The Lady Lions finished 5-11 overall after holding off an upset-minded Gentry team, (25-22, 27-25, 27-25) on Monday, Oct. 21. Gentry (6-161) knocked tournament host, Huntsville, out of the postseason (21-25, 25-12, 25-15, 23-25, 15-9) to begin district play and came after Gravette with the same enthusiasm.
Gravette won the first set, 25-22, then was extended to 27-25 before winning the second set by the required two-point margin.
Gentry jumped out to a 4-1 lead before Gravette responded with four straight points, tying the third set, 5-5. Hammers sent an ace over the net, kickstarting a 12-1 Lady Lion run.
Gentry fought to stay alive behind a pair of kills but Julia Matteson’s ace made the score 20-13 in favor of Gravette. Gentry pulled within 23-22 on Lily Lor’s ace and tied the game on Madison Boyd’s kill. The set was tied twice thereafter. Gravette reached match-point at 26-25 when Gentry couldn’t get the ball over and despite two heroic saves by the Lady Pioneers, Gravette prevailed 27-25 on a Gentry hitting error.
“That was not what we expected. We definitely didn’t play our level of volleyball that we’re typically used to playing,” Davis said. “We swept them and that was the most important part, but we definitely grew and learned from that. You could tell we definitely played a different view of volleyball today versus what we played last night so that’s all I really wanted.”