After a tough start to their season, the Greenwood Lady Bulldogs seemingly righted the ship last weekend by winning four of six matches at a one-day tournament in Bentonville. The GHS ladies dropped their first two regular season matches, both to Class 6A opponents Fayetteville and Springdale Har-Ber. But last Saturday Greenwood played six abbreviated tournament matches in Northwest Arkansas, going 4-2. They followed their weekend performance with a big home win last Tuesday against another 6A foe, the Northside Lady Grizzlies.
Rogers
Lady Bulldogs Head Coach Jennifer Golden began her 25th season at Greenwood on August 21st with a benefit contest on the road against the Rogers Lady Mountaineers, winning the five-set match, 3-2. Oddly enough, none of the first four games were very close, while the fifth set was a nailbiter that came down to the wire. The visitors won their first game, 25-14, before dropping the second game in lopsided fashion, 8-25. Greenwood won game three, 25-16, then lost game four, 12-25, before taking the decisive fifth game, 25-23.
Sophomore Rylee McAdams and senior Anna Grace Dedmon led the Lady Bulldogs offensively with 15 and 11 kill shots, respectively. Junior Abrey Jureka had a pair of service aces for Greenwood while Dedmon also led the team in blocks with six. Senior Alyssa Lovell was the team leader in digs with 20 while sophomore Addi Webb (19) and senior Raylee Wagoner (18) led their teammates in assists. Sophomore Emma Helms led in service receptions with 22, followed by Lovell with 18 and junior Hadley Webb with 13.
Fayetteville
A few days later, on August 25th, two perennial Arkansas volleyball powers met in their annual tilt at the GHS volleyball gym when the Lady Purple Dogs of Fayetteville came calling. Unfortunately, the outcome wasn’t what the Lady Bulldogs had hoped for, as the visitors left town following a three-game sweep of Greenwood, 16-25, 21-25, 13-25.
Fayetteville dominated the front line in the match with 45 kills to just 22 for the home team. Anna Grace Dedmon had six kills, Rylee McAdams had five. Senior Lily Johnson had four kills while Hadley Webb and Emma Helms had three each. Greenwood had no service aces compared to 13 for the visitors. Dedmon also had the only block for the Lady Bulldogs. Alyssa Lovell had 13 digs, and Raylee Wagoner had nine assists. Lovell also led the team in service receptions with 20, followed by Hadley Webb with 11 and senior Lorelai Graham with 10. Abrey Jureka also had 10 service returns.
Bentonville-West
The following day, on Tuesday, August 26th, the Lady Bulldogs headed north to Springdale to take on the Har-Ber Lady Wildcats. But the Greenwood ladies lost the match, 3-1, dropping game one, 16-25, before winning game two, 25-19. They then lost games three and four, 23-25 and 12-25, respectively.
Statistically, the Har-Ber girls had 51 kills to 32 for Greenwood. Rylee McAdams and Lily Johnson had seven kills to lead the Lady Bulldogs, followed by Emma Helms with six and Anna Grace Dedmon with five. Abrey Jureka had three service aces and Anna Grace Dedmon had five blocks. Abrey Jureka led her teammates with 15 digs while Raylee Wagoner had 13 assists. Addi Webb also had 10 assists. Jureka added 25 service receptions while Lorelai Graham had 16.
Bentonville tournament
After starting their season 0-2 against higher classification schools, the Lady Bulldogs faced yet another 6A opponent in their opening match at Bentonville last Saturday. The Lady Wolverines of Bentonville-West won that abbreviated match, 2-1, winning the first game, 25-13, before Greenwood rallied to take game two, 25-18. The pivotal third game was a nailbiter that went to Bentonville-West, 15-13.
The Lady Wolverines had twice as many kill shots at the net as did the Lady Bulldogs, 36 to 18. Lily Johnson had six kills to lead Greenwood while Rylee McAdams and sophomore Bella Meyers had four kills each. Raylee Wagoner had two service aces, nearly half of Greenwood’s total of five. Emma Helms had three blocks and Rylee McAdams had two. Abrey Jureka led the team with six digs, while teammate Hadley Webb had four and Addi Webb had three, along with eight assists to lead the team. Raylee Wagoner also had six assists. Jureka had 16 service receptions while Emma Helms had nine and Lorelai Graham had seven.
Match #2 featured Greenwood against Class 6A Conway. The Lady Bulldogs won the match despite dropping the opening game, 21-25. But they rallied to win games two and three, 25-21 and 15-11. The GHS girls had 21 total kills spread out among seven players. Sophomore Rebekah Voris led the team with five kills, while Rylee McAdams and junior Anniston Kennedy had four kills each. Anna Grace Dedmon and Lily Johnson had three kills each while Emma Helms and Bella Meyers had one kill each. Abrey Jureka led Greenwood with three service aces.
Anna Grace Dedmon was the team leader with six blocks while Lily Johnson had four. Emma Helms led the way with eight digs while Abrey Jureka had seven. Raylee Wagoner had 10 assists followed by Addi Webb with nine. Abrey Jureka led the team with 15 service receptions while Emma Helms had 11. Lily Johnson also had eight service returns and Rebekah Voris had six.
Greenwood’s third tournament match ended with a 2-1 GHS victory over the Lady Jaguars of Blue Springs (South) in Missouri. The Lady Bulldogs won the opening game, 25-19, dropped game two, 19-21, then won the decisive third game, 16-14. Anna Grace Dedmon led Greenwood with eight kills while Rylee McAdams had five. Hadley Webb had three service aces while Anna Grace Dedmon had three blocks.
Emma Helms had five digs while teammates Abrey Jureka and Hadley Webb had four each. Addi Webb had seven assists and Abrey Jureka led the team with 13 service receptions. Emma Helms also had 10 service returns while Hadley Webb and Lily Johnson had seven each.
Up next for Greenwood were the Lady Panthers of Greenbrier, a 2-0 victory for the Lady Bulldogs. The first game was a doozy with Greenwood winning, 28-26. Game two ended with a 25-13 triumph for the GHS girls, who had 21 kill shots at the net in the match. Rylee McAdams and Anna Grace Dedmon led the team with seven kills each. Rebekah Voris and Hadley Webb had two service aces each.
Abrey Jureka had nine digs to lead her teammates while Emma Helms had seven digs and Hadley Webb had six. Addi Webb led the squad in assists with nine while Raylee Wagoner had eight assists. Emma Helms had nine service receptions for Greenwood, followed by Abrey Jureka with six, Rebekah Voris with five, and Hadley Webb with three service returns.
Game five pitted the Lady Bulldogs against the Lady Chiefs of Springfield Kickapoo High School in Missouri, and Greenwood won both games by identical 25-14 scores. Rebekah Voris and Anna Grace Dedmon had five kills each, while Lily Johnson and Emma Helms had four kills each. Rylee McAdams had three kills. Helms and Raylee Wagoner each had three service aces in the match. Helms led the team in digs with seven while Hadley Webb had six. Addi Webb had 10 assists and Raylee Wagoner had six. Abrey Jureka led Greenwood with 12 service receptions.
After a long day of tournament play, Greenwood reached the finals of the tournament and faced Blue Springs, MO, once again, and this time the Lady Jags won 2-0, taking the first game, 25-21, before dominating in game two, winning 25-9 to claim the tournament championship. Greenwood had just 13 kill shots in the match, led by Anna Grace Dedmon with four slams while Rylee McAdams and Emma Helms had three kills each. Raylee Wagoner had a pair of service aces.
Defensively, Greenwood had no blocks and 18 total digs, led by Abrey Jureka with seven saves. Raylee Wagoner had four digs and led her teammates with six assists. Addi Webb also had four assists. Abrey Jureka had 14 service receptions, nearly half of Greenwood’s total of 30.
Fort Smith Northside
Fresh off their winning weekend at Bentonville, the Lady Bulldogs hosted the Lady Bears this past Tuesday and continued their winning ways with a clean sweep of the match, coming from behind in two games, winning the contest, 3-0. Each game was a battle with games two and three going into overtime. Greenwood won 25-20, 26-24, and 29-27 to improve their overall record to 5-4.
The Lady Bulldogs outdid the visitors at the net with 43 kills to 33 for Northside. Anna Grace Dedmon led the way with 12 slams, followed by Emma Helms and Rylee McAdams with seven each. Lily Johnson had six kills and Rebekah Voris had five. Raylee Wagoner led the team with three service aces while Anna Grace Dedmon had two. Rylee McAdams had four blocks with Dedmon picking up two. Abrey Jureka was busy, notching 27 digs to lead the team while Addie Webb had 16 assists and Raylee Wagoner had 15. Finally, Emma Helms led with 25 service receptions while Abrey Jureka added 22 service returns.
Schedule
The GHS girls were off for a few days before their next match at home against Siloam Springs this coming Tuesday, marking the start of 5A West conference play. The competition will include a ninth-grade match, a junior varsity match, then the varsity match. On Thursday the Lady Bulldogs will travel to Russellville for another league contest involving only junior varsity and varsity play. The following week Greenwood will play three matches, starting with a non-conference rematch with Bentonville-West on Monday the 15th, a trip to Alma on Tuesday the 16th, and home matches against Van Buren on Thursday the 18th.