Ending another Brilliant but Frustrating Season The Greenwood Lady Bulldogs volleyball team completed yet another brilliant season in 2009, finishing with a 26-9 overall record, and 12-2 in 5A West Conference play. They reached the playoffs for the seventh time in ninth seasons under head coach Jennifer Golden, making the semi-finals all seven times. In 2009 they reached the finals for the fourth consecutive year. There's so much to be proud of, and yet the disappointment and frustration was evident in the aftermath of Saturday's loss to Siloam Springs in the Class 5A championship match held in Jonesboro at the Convocation Center on the campus of Arkansas State University.
The Lady Bulldogs have every reason to be proud of their accomplishments this year and in year's past, except for the fact that they play in the same classification and conference as the Lady Panthers, the New York Yankees of Arkansas girls volleyball. Siloam Springs (36-3) won its sixth straight state title and its fourth in a row over Greenwood, defeating the GHS girls in three very close games, 25-22, 27-25, and 25-20.
Game two turned out to be the pivotal point in the contest between two evenly matched teams. After dropping the opening tilt by three points, Greenwood ran out to a 9-2 lead in game two. But the Siloam girls wouldn't go away, and kept chipping away at the GHS lead until they tied the game at 20-20. The Lady Bulldogs then had to fight off a pair of game points before knotting the game at 25 all. But Siloam's Allie Wade and Lizzy Briones came up with big plays to score the winning points for the Lady Panthers.
Seizing the momentum, Siloam Springs quickly took the lead in game three and never looked back. Trailing 10-4 early, Greenwood fell behind three times by as much as eight points, including 24-16. Despite winning four of the next five points, the Lady 'Dogs fell 25-20 to end the match.
"We were feeling good about ourselves," said GHS head coach Jennifer Golden. "I'm not taking anything away from Siloam - they are the read deal - they're a great team. But [if] you get momentum swinging your way, it's a totally different match. They deserve to win, but it's just frustrating - four years in a row - it just gets frustrating."
"We couldn't catch a break," continued Golden. "I don't feel like we caught a break at one time. Every time we tried to push the momentum, we would not catch a break. My girls fought hard. We came out and we knew what we had to do. We had the scouting report and we started out doing it. But you can't catch a break sometimes, and it just kills momentum, and in this game, momentum is everything."
For Greenwood, senior middle hitter Keeley Treece and junior outside hitter Hayley Allen each had 10 kills in the match. Junior libero Haley Townsend accounted for eight digs, and senior setter Natalie Nelms had a whopping 21 assists.