LADY BEARCATS END STATE TOURNAMENT DROUGHT WITH WIN OVER WEST FORK

A strong group of seniors has led the Booneville Lady Bearcats back to the volleyball state tournament.

A class that has played from a plethora of head and assistant coaches since starting the sport in seventh grade, did so with their third different head coach in as many senior high seasons as Bailey Stringer took over the program this year.

By leading the Lady Bearcats back to the state tournament, Stringer ended a state tournament drought that dated back to 2017.

The Lady Bearcats went into the District 3A-West tournament, which is being held at Bearcat Gym, as the 4-seed, which meant they needed to win twice to advance to the semifinals and punch their state tournament ticket.

They took care of Green Forest, the 9-seed, to open the tournament on Monday night, and last night send West Fork, the 5-seed, home for the seasons. Both matches were straight set wins with last night being 25-12, 25-9, 25-15.

The first set Tuesday saw the teams trade points with ties at 1-7 before a second consecutive kill by Laney Parrish made it 8-7.

The kill started a four point run by the Lady Bearcats that included a kill by Hayley Lunsford and an ace by Karmen Kent.

It was 11-8 when kills by Lunsford and Kent pushed the advantage to five and the lead continued to grow.

After a Lady Tiger point cut it to 21-12 kills by Hayley Roberts and Lunsford and a block and a kill by Joleigh Tate wrapped up the set.

The Lady Bearcats took control of the second set early. From a 5-3 lead to one of 11-3 there were three violent kills by Tate (shown), and ace and a kill by Katelyn Spain, and a kill by Lunsford.

Lunsford had four more kills while the lead grew to 23-9 and a kill by Tate and block by Roberts made it a 2-0 set lead.

In the third set a six point run from 10-7 to 16-7 made it clear the Lady Bearcats were going to win in straight sets.

During that run there were three kills by Lunsford and another by Abby O’Bar.

Roberts had three kills and shared a block with Tate down the stretch.

The Lady Bearcats will now play top seeded Hackett at 5 p.m. today at Bearcat Gym and will play again on Thursday at a time and against an opponent to be determined by the outcome of tonight’s matches.