El Dorado ended a nearly three-year losing skid last week against Little Rock Hall. Dreams of a winning streak were dashed, however, as Hot Springs Lakeside proved too tough to handle and handed the Lady Wildcats a 3-0 setback Tuesday at Wildcat Arena.
The Lady Rams, coached by Rhonda Thigpen, are the defending conference champions and improved to 3-0, 1-0. El Dorado fell to 1-2, 0-1.
Lakeside won by scores of 25-12, 25-18, 25-11.
“We definitely played a really good team with Lakeside,” said El Dorado coach Amber Reynolds. “I think it was just our inconsistency. We had moments of great ball control and great passes. And then we had moments where we settled on defense and the ball got away from us.”
Lakeside looked the part of an experienced, skilled squad with consistent serve and serve return, solid hitting at the net and defensive scrambling that stole points from the opponent.
“I thought the varsity started quick and then they mentally went down. But, I’m not going to take away from Amber’s team because El Dorado came out and they didn’t quit. They just kept on chipping away and getting excited,” Thigpen said. “Volleyball is a momentum game. I think we had to calm down. Came back in the third and same thing again, they came back with a couple of runs at us. I was glad we were able to get some good serving in. I think we served well.”
In the second game, the Lady Rams led 16-15 before scoring six straight points.
In Game 3, El Dorado looked deflated early and fell behind 13-1. Lakeside led 20-5 and was up 24-8. The Lady Wildcats found some juice, sparked by Davin James’ block at the net. Laila Reynolds had a kill and Keyanna Shelton’s diving dig led to another point before the Lady Rams finally put the match away.
“If I could have that five to eight point team, I think we would give a lot of teams a run for their money,” Reynolds said. “I believe they did finally find some pride in it. It’s just one of those things of being consistent and believing that they can actually pull this off. But, I was definitely proud of the fact that they didn’t roll over like they could have. They could’ve just let them have it but they fought all the way through.”
James had six blocks and one kill. Diana Obiozo had three blocks. Laila Reynolds had two blocks and Daisy Tabe recorded an ace.
“I think Davin James did a phenomenal job on the net. If I had to pinpoint a person that took care of business tonight, it would be Davin James. Diana Obiozo was also a strong presence on the net. Davin and Diana, I think, were gatekeepers tonight.
“And, they helped with some momentum changes, too. When you thought we were down, they came up with a block and reset the tone for us.”
El Dorado will host Benton on Thursday. Along with Lakeside, the Lady Panthers could contend for the title of best team in the league.
“It’s zero-zero. We’re on to the next conference game,” said Reynolds. “We’ll make some adjustments as far as working on our blocks and defensive-wise. But, I go into every game not really concerned about what they do but just making sure we’re doing our job on our side of the net.”