After finishing the week last Thursday evening with a conference win in the re-match with Charleston and notching Paris coach Jordan Devine’s 100th coaching victory, the Paris Lady Eagles turn their sights forward to a big week in the schedule starting on Monday. The Lady Eagles travel to Class 4A Mena on Monday for a big non-conference match; return home on Tuesday for an important conference match with Elkins, and finish the week on Thursday with a big showdown match at Hackett. Mena is an important game to the Lady Eagles, but the conference games with Elkins and the defending Class 3A state champion Hackett Lady Hornets are huge for Paris.
Paris has not lost a set in conference play this year, and their only losses of the season have been non-conference matches with upper classification teams such as Fort Smith Southside in five sets, and 16-time state champion Valley View in an invitational, two-set tournament earlier in the season. Hackett and Paris are once again the top teams in the 3A West, and before the season is over, the two teams could play each other up to four times in the next six weeks.
On last Thursday evening, it was Paris defeating Charleston in three sets in the conference re-match. The Lady Eagles continued their domination and clearly frustrated the Lady Tigers again. The Lady Eagles’ front line hitters were clearly dominant in the match, and the setters and back line of the Lady Eagles played “lights out” as they have all season.
With the victory over Charleston, Paris coach Jordan Devine picked up her 100th career coaching victory in just four years. Devine and the Lady Eagles hope that this is the year the team will once again get over the hump of winning a 3A state championship late next month. But, standing in their way are the Lady Hornets who are not ready to surrender their two-year run of winning a Class 2A state title in 2019 and a 3A title in 2020. Paris will have to focus on Mena and Elkins to avoid an upset by looking ahead to Thursday’s road match at Hackett.
Last year at this time, Paris traveled to Mena for what has become an annual road, non-conference match with the Lady Bearcats. Paris did not play well that night, and the next day, the team was quarantined for a two week stretch that had a significant effect on the final conference standings and seedings going into the district tournament. One may never know if the quarantine had an effect on how Paris played against Mena last year, but tomorrow, the Lady Eagles will be out to make a much better showing than last year’s at Mena.
Resident Press will be in Mena on Monday night and will bring you coverage of both the Mena match and Tuesday’s conference match with Elkins in Thursday’s online edition. Photos of both matches will be available on Facebook at Paris Eagles Sports on Thursday afternoon. Photos of the Charleston match are now available to fans on Facebook at Paris Eagles Sports.
And of course, Resident Press will be in Hackett on Thursday for the big showdown match between the best two teams in the 3A West. Stay with Resident Press for the best coverage of Paris Lady Eagles volleyball!
