Competing without head coach, Lady Lions lose to Lady Cardinals
FARMINGTON — Farmington stopped a fourgame skid with a 3-1 victory over Gravette, playing without head coach Brittney Davis, who is isolated with the entire junior high team because of covid-19 restrictions.
“She’s fine, she just has to stay in quarantine for two weeks,” said Gravette assistant coach Skyler Rawlins, who took over and brought the Lady Lion varsity to Farmington, which won the first set 2518 on Tuesday, Sept. 22, at Cardinal Arena.
Gravette led 7-4 early, getting an ace from Nicole Vogt. Farmington went on an 11-3 run to take the lead, which the Lady Cardinals never relinquished although Gravette put together a mini 3-0 run with middle hitter Lauren Irwin pounding two kills. Farmington responded with a 5-1 run. Remington Adams caught the Lady Lions off-guard with a dink followed by kills from Jaiden Duffy and Addison Fenton and Morgan Brye’s ace en route to opening up a 20-14 advantage.
The teams virtually traded points down the stretch, but Gravette couldn’t catch up and the Lady Cardinals cruised to a 25-18 win.
In the second set, Farmington jumped out to an 8-2 lead, getting Brye’s ace and kills by Fenton, Adams and Duffy. As many as nine points separated the teams from then on. Gravette again forged a mini 3-0 run on Abbie Smith’s kill and consecutive mistakes by Farmington to pull within 23-17 but could get no closer. Madison Cox’s block-kill ended the set, 25-18, in favor of Farmington.
Facing elimination, the Lady Lions rallied in the third set, going up 15-9 on back-to-back kills by Smith. Farmington reeled off four straight points, prompting a timeout by Rawlins. The set remained close the rest of the way. Smith’s well-placed kill landed on the back row, keeping Gravette alive with a 25-21 win.
Farmington bounced back, dominating the fourth set for a 25-15 win to take the match, three games to one.
“We played well. They [Farmington] are a good team,” Rawlins said. “We played better than the first match we had against them. I saw some good things and things we need to improve on.”
Over the course of his seven-year coaching career, first-year Farmington coach Greg Pair has found ways to overcome adversity. He began as an assistant volleyball coach at Lavaca during the 2015 season, admitting he didn’t know much about the sport. He quickly picked up the game and was named head coach at Lavaca in 2016.
“I’m proud of the girls. They’ve really been resilient through all the changes, through all the stuff, losing their coach and then getting a new coach that some of them had never met before. They didn’t know me, didn’t know my background, didn’t know anything about me and they came in willing to work, willing to change whatever I said we’re changing and really have done it in stride,” Pair said. “And now we’re fine-tuning things. I told them from the beginning I anticipated we would have some growing pains. That’s just natural with the circumstances.”