Lady Pointers earn sweep on senior night

The Lady Pointers held off a scrappy Springdale squad to win in three sets, 25-23, 25-11, 25-23, to celebrate senior night at Clair Bates Arena on Tuesday evening. Van Buren next heads to the state tournament in Cabot on Oct. 29. The Lady Pointers will face the host team at 5 p.m. in the first round. “The 6A West is tough. You have to come prepared to play every night, and Springdale is a scrappy bunch,” Van Buren coach Brett Reeves said. “They kept coming at us and the key for us was to hit well, and I think we did.” The Lady Pointers finished the regular season 19-13-1 overall and 8-6 in the 6A West. Springdale dropped to 6-19 overall and 1-13. Van Buren only led in one set and had to rally in the first and third sets to sweep the match. Grace Doolittle led the game with 24 kills and Madalyn Doolittle added 19. Brianna Ball paced Van Buren with 35 assists and Brooke Moore contributed a game-high 18 digs. Junior Amaya Johnson paced Springdale with 11 kills and 12 digs. Beth Kobeney added 15 digs and Taina Miller contributed eight kills. The Lady Pointers were playing catch-up with Springdale in the third game as Van Buren would tie up the score, only to have the Lady Bulldogs take back the lead. The Lady Pointers tied it up four times. Springdale was up 23-20 in the final set when Van Buren’s Madalyn Doolittle served up the final five points of the game. Van Buren rallied back to win the first set 25-23. Springdale was off to a big 8-2 start with four service points by Matty Chong Gum. The Lady Pointers struggled to gain any momentum early in the set and soon found themselves trailing 14-6. Brianna Ball was able to help Van Buren get back on track and close the gap to 14-11. However, the Lady Bulldogs still had more fight and pushed their lead to 21-14. Grace Doolittle delivered seven service points and Van Buren took the lead, 23-22, off a kill by Madalyn Doolittle. Springdale tied the game once more, but Van Buren put a light touch to a point and a kill by Madalyn Doolittle sealed the win for the Lady Pointers. Zoe Morrison had 11 service points to carry Van Buren to an 18-4 lead as the Lady Pointers won the second set 25-11. Greenwood 3, Beebe 0 Caylee Ciesla and Hannah Watkins had seven kills apiece as the Lady Bulldogs celebrated senior night with a 25-21, 25-11, 25-3 sweep of visiting Beebe. Senior Camryn Presley went out a winner as well with 13 kills for the winners (26-8, 12-1). Brooke Jones had six kills, and Larkin Luke and Zoie Dean added four kills each. Allison Rose had two kills and Izzy Davis added a kill. Greenwood can clinch the outright 5A-West crown with a win over Vilonia on Thursday.

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Van Buren High School Athletics

LADY POINTERS EARN SWEEP ON SENIOR NIGHT

GEORGE MITCHELL

Times Record | 10/23/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Aaron Shaffer