SENIOR CLASS DETERMINED TO TAKE LADY BEARS TO GREATER HEIGHTS

In order for the Northside Lady Bears to attain bigger goals this upcoming volleyball season, it’s up to their senior class to guide the way. The Lady Bears, who are now in the process of conducting their preseason practices, have an unusually high number of seniors on the roster this season — 10 to be exact. And those seniors are wanting to make a big impact before graduating. “As seniors, we have been working hard for three years and I think that this year, we finally are going to have a chance to do something and leave something, and with the help of our sophomores and juniors, I think that we’ll be able to get a lot accomplished,” senior hitter Grace Anne Hollenbeck said. “We’re all close with each other and that really helps us. We can lean on each other no matter what.” The seniors also realize that it’s their final chance to take Northside to heights it hasn’t experienced in quite some time. “We’ve all worked extremely hard and we’ve all really tried just to band together and pull together because it’s now or never, especially for us as seniors. ... We feel the pressure but we’re also excited about it and we’re really excited to move on,” senior setter Lexie Mosby said. While the Lady Bears have experienced a degree of success, making it to the state tournament every season since they were sophomores, there’s more on their plate. They have yet to beat arch-rival Southside, they have yet to win a conference title and they have yet to win a state tournament match. So those seniors really want to make this a successful season. They believe it can be done. “I think that we will be very successful this year and we’ve worked really hard all three years,” senior hitter Quineisha Tillery said. “Playing together would probably be our main thing.” They have also bought into what Matt Waack, entering his fourth season as the Lady Bears’ coach, has taught them in their time at Northside. ?(We have learned from Waack about) definitely hard work if you’re willing to put in the time. ... We’ve all learned specific skills from our position, but more than anything, we’ve learned hard work and teamwork,” Mosby said. The Lady Bears, who won the Arkansas Tech team camp tournament several weeks ago against high-caliber competition, have the ingredients to make a run at their first conference title since 2006. They have experienced hitters like Hollenbeck, Tillery, senior Nicole Medlin and junior Thea Bishop as well as Mosby setting. It may be up to the play of the liberos to determine the kind of season the Lady Bears really want to pursue. “Our liberos, Taylor (Pate, another senior) and Hannah (Smith, a sophomore), are going to be a key every single day because once we get a good pass, then we can run our offense and it starts with good passing,” Hollenbeck said. “They have really improved and showed us that they’re going to be helpful because we need that; we need good passes to run a good offense.” The seniors have their goals in mind. First and foremost, they want to finally break through and advance farther at state. “I would like to get past the first round at state. ... I think that we have the best chance that we’ve ever had to go far and I know that we can,” Hollenbeck said. And should they do just that, the seniors would definitely leave their place on the Lady Bear volleyball program. “We just want to keep pushing Northside forward, because the more we push forward, the more other people feel the need to push forward, so we just have to keep on pushing and hopefully, dragging a few more people along with us,” Mosby said. “Each year, we’ve gotten a little bit better and a little bit better and hopefully, this is the year that we can just tip over the top and really make this the best season yet.” Other seniors on the roster include Linda Quach, Miguela Depaynos, Lainey Logsdon, Emily Maxwell and Iesha Tillery. The Lady Bears begin their season at home on Tuesday, Aug. 27, against Springdale.

SENIOR CLASS DETERMINED TO TAKE LADY BEARS TO GREATER HEIGHTS

BUCK RINGGOLD

Times Record | 8/8/2019

PHOTO CREDIT: Brian D. Sanderford