Class 4A Arkansas state volleyball championship: Brookland sweeps Shiloh Christian

The straight-set win Saturday was the Bearcats' first state championship since 2016

By Jeff Halpern | Photos by Tommy Land 

HOT SPRINGS — After being state runner-up the past three years, the Brookland Bearcats finally get to return home with the championship trophy. 

No. 4 Brookland (30-4) defeated No. 14 Shiloh Christian (23-5) 25-20, 25-19, 25-16 for the Class 4A state championship at Bank Ozk Arena Saturday, ending a string of three consecutive defeats in the state championship to Valley View, which has moved up to Class 5A.

“We talked a lot about that, and this is surreal,” said Brookland head coach Nancy Rodriguez. “We have dreamed about this and gained a lot of experience. This day can be so overwhelming and last year, we were babies when we lost.”

The Bearcats were led by state tournament MVP Chloe Rodriguez, who finished with 34 assists, 8 kills and 9 digs. Maddie Smith had 13 kills. Rylee Walker had 19 digs and Lyndsey McCall had 12. Keeley Beary and Destiny Calderon had 7 kills.

“I didn’t pick Chloe to be the MVP. As a coach and a mom, I removed myself from that,” said Rodriguez. [Coaches are asked to pick a nominee for MVP in the event their team wins.] “What you don’t see on the court, you see in practice with the leadership. She’s had better games. I didn’t push it. She earned it.”

Brookland won by having 46 kills to 22 attack errors while Shiloh Christian had 19 kills to 17 errors.

“This wasn’t one of our better offensive games, but we had fewer mistakes,” said Rodriguez.

Shiloh Christian head coach Nathan Bodenstein said, “When you hit .020, you’re not going to win many matches. We played good defense, but we didn’t hit the ball really well today and couldn’t find our rhythm.”

Shiloh Christian was led by Caroline Ramsey, who had 5 kills. Abby James had 4 kills. Laila Creighton had 10 assists and Bella Bonanno had 21 digs.

Brookland broke open a 14-14 tie in the first game by going on a 5-1 run. Evan Polsgrove helped finish off the match with two of her six kills and Keeley Beary finished off the match.

Brookland took charge in the second set jumping out to a 11-2 lead with Smith collecting three kills in the process and Beary getting two in that stretch. Leading 20-12, Shiloh closed to 22-16 with Ramsey and Paige Addington getting kills during the run with two attack errors by Beary and Chloe Rodriguez. Brookland put the game away with kills by Beary and Smith while a serve by Laila Creighton went long.

The third set was tied 14-14 before Brookland went on a 7-0 run that saw Hannah Bass have two aces, Smith have two kills and Addy Vowell have a kill. Chloe Rodriguez finished the match with a kill to secure the championship.

“It was a blessing to get back here,” said Bodenstien, who won the 2017 Class 4A state title over Baptist Prep. “Nancy does a great job putting together game plans, and her team got after us. “