BENTONVILLE — Prematch jitters hit Springdale Har-Ber early at the Class 7A State Volleyball Tournament.
Good thing for the Lady Wildcats they didn’t last long.
With a large crowd of Har-Ber students in attendance Tuesday and a relative unknown opponent in West Memphis standing across the net, the Lady Wildcats seemed a bit anxious on the big stage.
But after a slow start in which Har-Ber watched West Memphis scored six of the first seven points of the match, things settled down as the Lady Wildcats eventually cruised to a convincing 25-15, 25-10, 25-14 sweep of the Lady Blue Devils in Tiger Arena.
“I think it was first-game jitters in a state tournament with some adrenaline flowing, and not knowing much about West Memphis or what they do,” Har-Ber coach Sandy Jones said. “I just called a timeout there early and told them, we can’t worry about those things and we have to play our game.
“We knew if we could get our game going we could win and we finally settled down.”
After the slow start, Har-Ber (19-13) took over the match with strong outside play from Alicia Swearingen and Marisa Pless, who combined for 21 kills. Down 6-1 at one point in the first game, the Lady Wildcats used a 14-4 run to pull away.
“When we fall behind a few points we tend to get nervous,” West Memphis coach Jeannie Crader said. “But we came out with some intensity (Tuesday). They are just way, way more experienced than we are.
“We have just one girl out there who have even played junior high volleyball, and it shows sometimes in big matches like this.”
Har-Ber built an 8-1 lead in the second game with junior Katie Huff scoring several nice blocks at the net to set the tone. In the third game, junior Jordan Foley showed off her strong serve by recording two of her match-high six aces.
Kiara Adams led West Memphis (11-10) in the match with seven kills.
The Lady Wildcats will face Conway, the top seed from the 7A-Central Conference, at noon today in the tournament quarterfinals. Conway drew a first-round bye.
“We played Conway in team camp and beat them,” Jones said. “But they’re the number one seed and they’re going to be good, so we’re going to have to play at our top. We’ve got to be able to attack the ball and we can’t just push it over and we will have to have strong serving against them also.”