FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE COACH PLEASED WITH TEAM ENTERING 2018 SEASON

Northside coach Matt Waack undoubtedly has been pleased with how his Lady Bears have progressed entering the upcoming 2018 volleyball season. Now, he and the Lady Bears want to translate that into more wins and a deeper postseason run. “They’ve worked really hard for me all summer,” Waack said following Tuesday’s annual Red-White scrimmage at Kaundart-Grizzly Fieldhouse. “I feel like we’re kind of piecing everything together still; I mean it’s still early obviously, people are starting to find some roles and I’ve got a super-competitive group. ... I’ve got a lot of girls fighting for positions and more depth than I’ve ever had, so that’s good. “We’ve had some good team camps, I feel like we’ve got a good group of senior leadership going on and a great junior class going on right there with them, so I feel really good about how the summer preseason has progressed for us.” Northside’s players themselves are believing a strong showing this summer can carry over into a more successful fall. “We’ve been to a lot of tournaments and we’ve been playing really, really hard and playing a lot of difficult teams and at each of the tournaments, we’ve done really good,” junior setter Lexie Mosby said. “At the past Southside tournament, we only got beat fully by one team, so that was a big accomplishment for us especially because we’ve never done this good as a team in the preseason. “With that being said, I’m just really excited for the regular season because just seeing how well we’re doing now gives us kind of the motivation and the courage to say we can do this, like we can win. We’re really hoping to win conference; that’s been our goal from the get-go, so just everything combined kind of gives us the confidence that we can do this, we can take conference and get a number up on the wall and be remembered.” More reasons for the team’s optimism is the return of several talented players, namely middle hitters Nakiah Willis (a senior) and Nicole Medlin (a junior). Willis is also nearly back to full strength after a knee injury which sidelined her for last season’s 7A State Tournament. “They’ve come on real strong for us, they’ve both played middle for me in the past as varsity starters, so that helps and their (volleyball) level just continues to grow,” Waack said. “Nakiah’s almost 100 percent or real close to it and still playing super-smart, got her swinging back and playing great defense. ... Nicole has just grown in the game and still has a powerful swing and the athleticism she’s always had. “We are super deep on (defensive specialists), program-wide actually. I’ve got two senior DS’s (Maddy Worden and K’zaria Fisher) and like four or five junior DS’s in the mix as well, so that’s great and they’re all fighting for positions.” Waack added there are also other players capable of emerging as the season gradually progresses. “Quineisha (Tillery, a junior outside hitter) has an opportunity like she did last year; she started for me in the state tournament as a sophomore, so hopefully we can get her to continue to progress,” Waack said. ”(Junior outside hitter) Rebekah Krehbiel’s come on real strong this year for me; she didn’t get a lot of varsity time last year but right now she’s got herself a starting role just playing hard and smart and working real hard, so I like to see that.” Two other outside hitters, junior Grace Anne Hollenbeck and sophomore Thea Bishop, are also in the mix-up front. On Thursday, Northside will be at home for its benefit match against Southside. Then the Lady Bears will be doing some traveling, starting on Aug. 21 at Springdale and carrying over into their first two 6A-Central matches. “We’re on the road a lot early,” Waack said. “We scheduled tough to hopefully get some experience up front and face some adversity early so that way, we’re comfortable in those situations and ready for the long haul of the season.”

FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE COACH PLEASED WITH TEAM ENTERING 2018 SEASON

BUCK RINGGOLD

Times Record | 8/15/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford