Seventh grader Haidyn Blasingame sets up the ball while teammate Katie Vincent (left) readies to assist. (Democrat Photo/ Mark Randall)

The junior Lady Wildcats volleyball squad won its first trophy under Coach Matt Mink this weekend with a second place finish in the Blazer Blast tournament at Valley View.

The team played six pool games and eight matches on their way to the finals before falling to Nettleton.

The junior Ladycats beat MacArthur 18-25, 25-12 and 15-13. In the semi finals, the Lady Cats knocked off No. 1 seed Hoxie, 23-25, 25-16 and 15-4.

Fatigue took its toll though in the finals against Nettleton. The Raiders claimed the top spot with a 25-27, 10-25 victory.

"We just kind of ran out of juice at the end," head coach Matt Mink said. "by the end of the day, you could tell. We had a call not go our way and it was 25-25 and there was a bal that was hit four times on the Nettleton side and they didn't call it and it just carried over into the second game."

Mink said the team played hard all weekend.

"We fell a little short, but any time you come out of a tournament as runnuner-up, you can brag. It's our first junior high trophy since I've been here. I'm just proud of the way they played all weekend. They hung in there and kept battling."

The team made 90 percent of their serves,Mink said.

Hannah Walters went 56 of 58 serving with seven aces, 119 digs and 20 kills, Cecilia White went 59 of 64 serving with ten aces and 76 digs and Hailey Winningham went 59 of 66 serving with six aces and 45 assists to make the all-tourney team.

The junior Ladycats are now are 9-3.

In other action, the junior high squad continued their winning ways and it looks like their senior counterparts are beginning to put their early difficulties behind as well.

Both squads knocked off Pocahontas in a match held on Sept. 18 at home.

The senior girls (4-7 ) squad prevailed over the Redskins in four games 26-16, 25-22, 14-25 and 25-14.

Bailye Ballard and Cecilia Moye each had 19 digs. Morgan McKenzie had 15 assists, Haley Brewer 15 kills, Sarah Cooper had four aces and eight kills and Lacy Staten added two aces and seven digs.

Head coach Matt Mink said the senior girls team is starting to show some signs of life after a slow start.

"We changed some things around and tried a new rotation," Mink said.

Serving though, remains a bit of a problem, he said.

The senior squad had 20 serving errors in the match.

"We basically gave them 20 points," Mink said. "Twenty points through four games -- those scores could have been a lot closer. So serving is kind of getting us a little bit. We're missing big serves at the most crucial times it seems like."

Still, Mink said the match was probably their best game of the season.

"It looks like things are finally starting to come along a little bit at the right time," Mink said. "From here on in we need to be on our game. We're starting to hit conference play and we have a month of the season left and more tournaments."

earlier in the week the senior girls fell to Westside in Jonesboro 25-7, 25-13 and 25-8 on Sept. 16.

On the junior high side, the Lady Cats prevailed 25-19, 25-13 beating Pocahontas for the first time in three years.

Hailey Winingham was 10 for 10 serving, Kelly Guthrie was 11 for 11 serving with three aces and 16 digs, Cecilia White was 10 for 10 serving with five aces and six digs and Hannah Walters had 12 digs and four aces.

"I didn't feel like we played great," Mink said. "The last couple of games we haven't played as well as we're capable of. We lost to Westside and just didn't play very well. It was kind of a down moment for us and was probably their worst game of the season. But we were able to beat Pocahontas and we continue to roll and play well with each other."