SILOAM SPRINGS — Siloam Springs hopes it can start the second half of league play as well as it finished the first half.
The Lady Panthers swept their fourth straight 7A/6A-West Conference volleyball match Thursday with a 3-0 win against Van Buren (25-18, 25-22, 25-12) at Panther Activity Center.
Siloam Springs (10-5, 5-2) stormed out to a big win in game one, but the Lady Panthers struggled for much of game two.
Van Buren fought back and tied the match at 21, looking to gain some momentum. The Lady Panthers squashed that run with a kill in the back from libero Beth Brankle, a combo block from Baily Cameron and Lauren Cook and a kill from Rebekah Hill to set up game point.
Van Buren couldn’t handle the next possession to fall behind 2-0.
“We had to persevere,” said Siloam Springs assistant coach Joellen Wright. “It took us a little while to get the chemistry back. To their credit, that’s the girls’ mentality. You can see how they’ve grown from last year.”
Van Buren coach Stephanie Hill said not being able to capitalize on the game two momentum was critical for the Lady Pointers (7-8, 1-6).
“This game is all about momentum,” said Van Buren coach Stephanie Hill. “You try and get it and find a way to keep it. One little mistake can be enough.”
Siloam Springs opened up a 10-5 lead in game three after two kills from Cook, one from Bailei Brown and an ace from Taylor Gay.
Brown had another kill and Hill had two more kills, and a push kill from Ashlin Stock made it 17-8.
The Lady Panthers led 20-12 before finishing the match with a 5-0 run. Cook had a kill followed by three straight kills from Mirna Torres to end the match.
Cook finished the game with 10 kills while Torres had seven. Ashley Avery had 13 assists, while Stock had nine assists.
The Lady Panthers had 15 blocks on the night, led by Cameron with six and three from Brown. Beth Brankle led Siloam Springs with six digs.
Emilee Aaron led Van Buren with seven kills, while Chloe Baumann had five kills.
“I knew (Siloam Springs) had been playing well,” Hill said. “Coming up here is tough.”
Siloam Springs plays at Bentonville on Tuesday, while Van Buren hosts Har-Ber.