Conway avenges loss, hands Benton first defeat of season

The Wampus Cats celebrated senior night and honored assistant cheer and dance coach with breast cancer benefit

By Jeff Halpern | Photos by Braeden Botts  

CONWAY — Benton’s quest of going undefeated throughout the 2022 volleyball season came to an end Thursday night at Buzz Bolding Arena. 

The No. 3 Conway Wampus Cats (23-2) extended their winning streak to 21 games by knocking off No. 2 Benton (25-1) 19-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-21 at Conway’s Pink Night benefitting breast cancer with Conway High School assistant cheer and dance coach Jennifer Smolsky, who has been battling breast cancer for a year, being the recipient.

Benton defeated Conway 24-26, 21-25, 25-10, 25-16, 15-10 on Aug. 25. Conway’s last loss came two days later to Columbia Rock Bridge (Mo.), 25-19, 25-19, at the Bentonville Early Bird Invitational.

“This win was sweet,” said Conway head coach Laura Crow. “It’s hard to lose a match when you win the first two games, but it goes to show you how hard they play, and we were happy to have another chance to play them.

“We didn’t talk about rankings, but we know what type of team they are, and I wanted them to go out and play super hard.”

Meggan Smith led Conway with 13 kills. Kenley Jordan had 18 assists. Kim Quinit had 22 digs and Saniyah Rippond had 3 blocks while Madison Derden had 2 aces.

Benton head coach Michelle Shoppach acknowledged her team did not play its best, but said Conway had a lot to do with that.

“Conway showed us a lot of things, and we did not have our ‘A’ game, nor did we have our ‘B’ game,” she said. “Our kids have learned for a long time that you can learn or lose and we want to learn from this. They took ownership of what happened.

“We served about 82 percent and normally we serve about 90 percent. Our defense got 57 percent of our digs to our setters. Our assistant coach [Heidi Cox] at one point said our back row was working their butts off, but our front line was not capitalizing. When we talked after the game, we talked about what we need to do to get better. One loss is not going to define our season.”

Abigail Lagemann led Benton with 14 kills while Khenedi Guest had 7 kills. Kenzie Garrett had 22 assists and Lagemann had 4 aces.

Neither side got ahead by more than one point in the first game until Benton scored the the final seven points of the match with Ellie Ferguson coming up with two kills during that span and Legemann getting an ace.

Conway led the second game 11-10 and went on a 7-1 run to break it open with Olivia Wiedower getting two aces and Kayla Smith getting a kill and teaming up with Laura Tinsley on a block.

Conway led 7-6 in the third game before going on a 9-1 run to break that game open with Rippond getting two kills during that stretch and Benton making several errors such as twice having a player hit the ball twice and Olivia Little catching a serve from Wiedower.

Benton rallied from a 9-5 deficit in the fourth game to take a 11-10 lead with Lagemann getting and kill and 2 aces. The match was tied 17-17 before Conway scored 5 of the next 6 points to lead 22-18 thanks to two kills by Derden. Benton closed to 22-20 on a kill by Lagemann and Anna Kate Saxton getting blocked at the net before Tinsley had two kills and Derden ended it with an ace.

“You always like to win the first set, but I was glad to see we took charge in the second and third sets,” said Crow. “We saw what they were doing, and our hitters started getting the ball down.

“This was a really big week for us because we had senior night Tuesday and our Pink Night tonight and our girls worked really hard getting the gym ready and coming ready to play.”

Shoppach, who said after a 3-1 victory over then-No. 4 Cabot on Oct. 5 that the undefeated record wasn’t a priority for her, was glad the loss came in the regular season and not in the Class 5A state tournament which starts Tuesday in Greenbrier.

Smolsky, who was introduced to the crowd between the second and third games, said, “This is a great community. These kids are terrific. I’ve known them for a long time and seen them grow.”

The match also featured a silent auction with proceeds going to Smolsky.

Smolsky said she is still undergoing radiation and has a scan scheduled for Dec. 7.