FAYETTEVILLE — Jessica Phelan walked into the lockerroom inside War Eagle Arena during the Class 7A state tournament, ready to assemble her team for the biggest game of the season to date.
A showdown with rival Bentonville awaited in the Class 7A girls volleyball state semifinals, and Phelan figured one final pep talk was in order.
Her team had other plans.
Coach Of The Year
Jessica Phelan
Fayetteville
NOTABLE: Guided Lady Bulldogs to first volleyball state championship this season ... Has led team to three consecutive 30-win seasons, three straight conference titles and three straight appearances in Class 7A finals ... Compiled a 35-3 record this season and a combined 101-9 mark over the past three years.
“Before the Bentonville game, I was headed into the lockerroom to go get them, and they kicked me out,” Phelan said. “They were in a circle talking about what the season meant to them, what the match ahead meant to them. A couple of them were even in tears, which was a little concerning to me before the game ahead.
“But it was a signal to me that everything we worked for meant so much to them. Their heart was in it, and it was their time.”
While Phelan might have been a bit nervous walking out of that lockerroom, she also knew her Fayetteville team was ready, just as it had been all season long and would continue to be in defeating Bentonville in the semifinals and Fort Smith Southside in the finals to win the school’s first-ever state volleyball championship.
For her efforts, Phelan has been named the NWA Media All Big-7 Coach of the Year.
“For those seniors, winning a state championship was the last thing to check off the list,” Phelan said. “They had been nationally ranked, they had won conference championships and that was the last thing. And having gotten so close for the past two years, anything less than that championship for those seniors was going to be somewhat of a disappointment.
“So when that last ball went down in Jonesboro, it was a mixture of emotions. It was joy, it was relief and I was just so proud that they did it and so proud of those seniors.”
Fayetteville (35-3) had been so close before, like Phelan said. The previous two years the Lady Bulldogs finished runner-up in the 7A tournament to Bentonville. But with a loaded senior class back and hungry to finish on top, nothing was going to stop Fayetteville this year.
“She kept us very focused,” senior setter Aubrey Edie said. “There were times in games where we would be winning but we wouldn’t be playing well. So she would call timeouts and just ask us, ‘What are you doing?’ And then other times in practice we’d be goofing off and stuff like that and she would get down to business.”
The Lady Bulldogs won 101 games over the past three seasons with seniors Edie, Mikayla Avery, Paige Gocke, Hannah Pinter, Tatum Marshall, Andrea Kathol, Phylicia Hill and Kennedie Daniel setting unprecented accomplishments and standards for future Lady Bulldogs. But more than win totals and national rankings, Phelan knew bringing home that state title was more important than everything else.
“Three straight seasons where you win 30 games, that’s just awesome,” Phelan said. “They’re just such a talented group collectively, and they’re so competitive. No matter what the game is, they want to win, and every Tuesday and Thursday night they were really competitive and worked really hard as a group to get that championship.”