With its 3-game defeat of Benton Oct. 16, the volleyball team improved to 12 and 0 in conference play and solidified its place atop the 6A/7A south standings earning it a first round bye in the state tournament. It will play the winner of Fort Smith Southside and Rogers on Oct. 31.
Senior Hannah Rice said she feels like the senior night atmosphere is was caused the team’s slow start, losing the first game 15-25.
“We knew we were better than Benton,” Rice said. “We just had to get past all of the senior night emotions and play how we should.”
For senior Brooke Howell, the highlight of her season had come against Benton in the two teams previous matchup. It was a play that was commonly known as “the knockout”. On a spike, Howell hit a player from Benton and knocked her on the ground, and out of the game.
“Knocking that girl out against Benton was definitely the highlight of my season, it was pretty intense,” Howell said. “She didn’t even step foot on the court this game, she was scared.”
For coach Beth Solomon, this success has not come as a surprise; in fact, it started the first time the team stepped on the court together as seniors at a camp in Rodgers Heritage.
“We knew coming in to the year it was going to be a big season,” Solomon said. “It started at the Rodgers camp when we went undefeated and beat the first team we played 25-0 with Brooke Howell serving all 25 points.”
The team will return to this same court where its season started to compete in the state tournament, which is one reason Solomon scheduled the camp in Rogers.
“I knew that that was where state was going to be played, and I wanted the girls to have some familiarity on the court,” Solomon said.
In the state tournament, the team will be competing against 7A schools only, which will be a big step up from the competition they faced in most of conference play.
“The teams we are going to face in state are better than most of the teams we played in conference,” Solomon said. “But there won’t be any surprises, we played some of these teams last year, and we are going to go up there a day early and watch some games.”
To prepare for the step up in competition, Solomon has started to incorporate the ninth grade team into varsity practices.
“We started practicing with the ninth grade team, and its coaching staff came up and started helping also,” Solomon said. “We also played Nettleton, who is always a really strong opponent.”
