East teams advance in 5A volleyball By Cory Clark, Sun Staff Writer JONESBORO — The 5A-East conference flexed its muscles Wednesday in the Class 5A state volleyball tournament at Blazer Arena. On a day where four 5A-East teams squared off with four 5A-West squads, the East pulled a clean sweep, winning all four quarterfinal matches. Host Valley View along with Nettleton, Paragould and Batesville all scored victories to set up a pair of all 5A-East semifinals today. No. 1 seed and host Valley View dispatched Little Rock Christian, the No. 2 seed from the West, 25-16, 25-12, 25-18. Nettleton won a wild five-set affair over a scrappy Farmington squad 18-25, 25-12, 25-15, 23-25, 16-14. Farmington was the No. 4 seed from the West. Paragould, the defending 5A state champion, beat Harrison 25-19, 25-16, 25-15. Today's semifinal matchups include Valley View taking on Batesville at 4 p.m. and Nettleton playing Paragould at 6 p.m. Valley View (28-6) rolled in its quarterfinal match with Little Rock Christian, needing about an hour to sweep to a victory. The Lady Blazers, who won four straight Class 4A titles before moving up to 5A this year, were well-organized and played hard from the outset, spurred on by a large home crowd. "The biggest thing that I'm happy about is their overall intensity from start to finish," Valley View coach Margie McGee said. "At the beginning of the third game the first 10 points we kind of played with them back and forth and we made some mistakes, but I was really proud of their composure and the way the recovered, and then they started pulling away just like they know how." McGee said after the nerves wore off, her team executed very well. "I knew we were going to start at a high level. We missed five serves in the first game and that's adrenaline pumping, but once they settled in they played their match," she said. Senior MaryJohn Richmond had a great day for Valley View, offering great serves, showing off a variety of digs and even getting involved in the attack. Richmond was 22-for-24 serving with three aces, 31 assists, 18 digs and seven kills. Riley Millay was 8-for-10 serving with 13 kills and seven digs for Valley View; Reagan Rees was 11-for-14 serving with 13 digs; Canaan Richardson finished with nine kills; and Madison Hogue added seven kills. While Valley View won fairly easily, Nettleton had to give just about everything it had to oust a tough Farmington team. The Lady Raiders and Farmington went back and forth before Nettleton's Alden Weeks ended the match with a soft, well-placed kill for a 16-14 win in the fifth game. Farmington took the opening game 25-18 before Nettleton (23-11) took the next two 25-12 and 25-15. In game three, Nettleton held an 18-14 lead before Farmington got going and rallied to win 25-23. The fifth game was tight throughout. Nettleton jumped out to a 9-4 advantage before Farmington (14-9) rallied and pulled even at 11. Nettleton went up 14-12 but Farmington wouldn't go away, finding a way to knot the match at 14. Weeks, a 6-foot senior, slammed a kill to put Nettleton 15-14 and then softly placed a kill to the opposite side of the court for the final point of the match. Nettleton coach Vickie Davis said the Cardinals earned her team's respect. "Kudos to the Farmington team. They are the scrappiest team I think we have played all season. They just do not quit and I know that conference is tough and so they probably have to fight and claw just like we do every night," Davis said. "It was really impressive they way they fought to keep the ball off the floor, and just when I would think we were ready to surge ahead they would pull us back in." Davis gave a lot of credit to Weeks, whose energy seemed to rub off on her teammates as she slammed kill after kill, including one right to the face of a Farmington player. Weeks finished with 29 kills and six blocks. "Credit to Alden Weeks. She's the one who's a team leader and got them fired up and got them going, and she pounded the ball out of the middle. That's the hardest I've seen her hit it all year," she said. Morgan McCall had another great all-around game for Nettleton, finishing with 15 kills, 25 assists and 15 digs. Bailey Booker had 14 assists and 15 digs and Kennedy Sellers had 19 digs. Also for Nettleton, Jenna Hodges added 12 digs and Sara Turner finished with 11. The winners of today's semifinal matches will play in the 5A state championship game on Saturday in Hot Springs at 7 p.m. cclark@jonesborosun.com