Northside seemed to be in control of its match on Senior Night.

The Lady Bears took the first two of three sets against North Little Rock and seemed to be in great shape in the fourth set, leading 15-11.

But NLR came back to win that set, forcing a deciding fifth set. In a seesaw affair, the Lady Charging Wildcats scored the last three points to pull out the match, winning 25-22, 16-25, 18-25, 25-23, 15-13 at Kaundart-Grizzly Fieldhouse.

The win by NLR (13-11, 8-4) also gave Southside the outright 6A-Central championship. Southside won its match Tuesday at Mount St. Mary.

NLR and Northside (18-10-1, 8-4), which had been in sole possession of second place entering Tuesday’s match, are now tied for second along with Conway.

Northside ends the regular season with road matches at Cabot on Thursday and at Southside next Tuesday.

In the fourth set, the Lady Charging Wildcats rallied from that 15-11 deficit to eventually tie it. Then with the score tied at 23-all, they broke it scoring the next two points, forcing the deciding fifth set. NLR then jumped out to a 5-1 lead and later went up 6-2 in the fifth.

But the Lady Bears rallied, scoring seven of the next eight points to go in front, 9-7. They led by two again, 11-9, on senior Grace Anne Hollenbeck’s kill.

NLR answered with two straight points to tie it, and it remained tight the rest of the way.


Northside went back on top, 13-12, on an NLR hitting error, but NLR scored the next three points to pull it out.


Junior hitter Jada Lawson had a pivotal kill that gave NLR the lead for good, 14-13, and Northside was unable to return a NLR kill for match point.

Northside raced out to leads of 7-2 and 8-4 in the opening set before NLR scored nine straight points to go in front. The Lady Bears rallied to tie it at 22-all before the Lady Charging Wildcats broke it with a 3-0 run to take the opener.

In the second set, the Lady Bears got another early lead, 10-4 on Thea Bishop’s kill. They extended it to 16-8 on senior Quineisha Tillery’s block, then went up by 10 points, 21-11, on senior Taylor Pate’s ace.

Hollenbeck capped the set with a kill, tying the match at 1-all.

Northside jumped out to an 8-3 lead on the strength of some strong plays up front from Dynasty Andrews. Senior hitters Nicole Medlin and Lainey Logsdon helped extend that advantage with several kills, and Tillery’s powerful kill capped things to put the Lady Bears a set away from the win.

But NLR denied the Lady Bears that win in their final match at home for the season, as 10 Lady Bear seniors were honored in pregame ceremonies.

Medlin finished with 16 kills and four blocks, while Hollenbeck had 10 kills, Logsdon nine kills and Tillery six kills. Lexie Mosby, another senior, added 35 assists and Macie Grams had 16.

Also, Pate and Hannah Smith each served four aces and Bishop had three aces of her own. Andrews had five blocks and five kills as well. Pate was the leader in digs with 30, with Mosby adding 14, Bishop with 10 and Smith finished with nine.
