By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
The Beebe volleyball team moved to 3-3 overall and 2-1 in the 5A Central this week. A match regularly scheduled for Thursday against Pulaski Academy was played on Monday, and the Lady Bruins escaped BHS with a victory in five games.
On Tuesday, Jacksonville visited Badger Arena and was routed in three by scores of 25-13, 25-6 and 25-7.
After taking a 2-0 lead only to drop the next three in Monday’s match, Beebe coach Ashley Camp was pleased to see her team bounce back in dominant fashion on Tuesday.
“We’ve been building this program and getting better,” said Camp after Tuesday’s win. “I told them before this match that the mark of a great team is the ability to put a loss behind you and bounce back. So it was really good to see them do that.”
Scores in Monday’s loss were 25-19, 25-18, 25-27, 23-25 and 11-15. On Tuesday, the sweltering heat inside Badger Arena did a number on the Lady Red Devils, and the Lady Badgers’ service game finished them off.
At one point, three different Jacksonville players were seated in front of an open-doored breezeway at the back of the gym while action continued on the floor. And it was on the floor where many Beebe serves landed.
Junior Sarah Clark served up 11- straight points to start game two, including four aces. Jacksonville finally broke serve with a kill by Emily Lovercheck, but Beebe broke right back. That’s when Destiny Nunez took serve for a long time, scoring six points including four more on aces to give the home team an 18-1 lead.
Jacksonville’s first and only point on serve in game two was by Lovercheck and made the score 21-4.
Jacksonville was more competitive for about half of game three. Beebe held a 14-7 lead when Clark took serve for the second time in the game. And she again served up 11-straight points to finish off the match. Clark also showed a knack for finding the holes in Jacksonville’s defense, pushing several would-be sets into empty spaces on the Lady Devils’ side of the floor.
“She did that very well tonight,” Camp said. “I thought our service game has really improved and I think our return of serve is better. I still think we need some work on our passing and communicating on the floor. But this was a good win.”
Beebe’s next opponent is fellow 5A-Central member North Pulaski, but it’s not a conference match. The two teams will meet up at 10 a.m. today in the Vilonia Invitational Tournament.
