Northside coach Matt Waack feels like his Lady Bears are on the verge of competing with the elite teams in the 6A-Central.

However, the Lady Bears will have to wait another day to get that elusive signature win.

Northside played close with Conway, the second-place team in the conference, for all three sets Thursday at Kaundart-Grizzly Fieldhouse, but the Lady Wampus Cats found a way to pull out wins on each occasion. Especially the third and final set, when Conway rallied from a 23-20 deficit to grab a 26-24 win for the sweep, 25-20, 25-22, 26-24.

“We just couldn’t pull out that third set,” Waack said. “We got some momentum after each set, but we just couldn’t get it to fall our way.”

The Lady Bears were defeated in the home-and-home by Conway, and Northside still has games left against 6A-Central leader Southside and North Little Rock, both of which also beat the Lady Bears in the first round of conference play.

Northside (22-11, 7-4) trailed 17-13 in the third set before making a comeback. The Lady Bears went on a 10-3 run to build a 23-20 lead.

Conway answered with four straight points and was on the verge of the sweep before a kill from Lexie Mosby tied things up.

But the Lady Wampus Cats (18-6-1, 9-2) broke the deadlock on the next point when Anna Haley delivered a kill. Then Emma Begley, who made several strong plays at the net all night for Conway, iced the match with a block for match point.

In the opening set, Conway led 15-13 before scoring nine of the next 10 points. Northside prolonged the set by scoring six straight points to get within four, 24-20, before Begley’s kill on the ensuing point ended it.


The Lady Bears got the first point of the second set on Quineisha Tillery’s kill before the Lady Wampus Cats reeled off five straight points and eventually led 14-6. Northside closed to within two, 24-22, on back-to-back kills from Nicole Medlin and Ori Harrison, before Conway’s Jessica Gunnels delivered a kill of her own to put her team up, 2-0.

Tillery, Grace Anne Hollenbeck and Nakiah Willis each had eight kills, and Willis and Medlin had four blocks each. Medlin finished with seven kills.

Mosby recorded 32 assists and Thea Bishop had 28 digs.

Waack also liked the team’s serve-receive in Thursday’s match.

“I thought our serve-receive was the best it’s been all year,” he said. “We made only three errors, and Zee (Fisher), Thea and Nakiah were on, and all three had over a 2.0 in serve-receive.”

The Lady Bears will travel to North Little Rock on Tuesday before returning home next Thursday to take on Cabot.


