Jonesboro on tap in title game

Jonesboro on tap in title game

Sports Editor PEARCY — If familiarity truly breeds contempt, then you wouldn’t know it by talking to Lisa Beasley. The veteran Marion head volleyball coach will be making her third straight appearance in the Class 6A final on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. at Bank of the Ozarks Arena in Hot Springs, and the team that they’ll be facing is far from a stranger.

In Jonesboro (26-7 overall), Marion (33-3 overall) will be competing against a league rival of 11 seasons, and a school with one of the richest volleyball traditions in the state of Arkansas, with 11 state championships to its name.

“I think it says a lot about both programs,” Beasley said following her team’s state semifinal win against Russellville yesterday afternoon. “I’ve felt for a little while now that we may be seeing them again in the state tournament, and here we are.

They’re a really good team, but they’re so young that they’re only going to continue to get better and better. I have all the respect in the world for Coach (Craig) Cummings, and I think we all know that Saturday is going to be a dogfight.”

Marion won all three of its meetings against Jonesboro this season, including a three-set win against the Lady Golden Hurricane last Saturday in the 6A-East district final.

On top of that, Marion has won eight straight against Jonesboro dating back to October of 2013.

“We’re going to have to play much better against them if we want to win on Saturday,” Beasley said.

“I feel like we’ve yet to have our best match against them this year, and you have to give them some credit for that, as well.”

As far as tradition goes, Marion and Jonesboro have won two out of the past three Class 6A state titles, with Russellville adding in the 2014 crown.

Marion and Jonesboro have met with a state title on the line before. In 2006, Marion’s first season as a member of Class 6A, the Lady Pats and Lady Golden Hurricane split their season series as Marion won the conference title that year.

They met in Little Rock for the state crown, but Jonesboro prevailed in five sets.

Beasley admitted that she’s wary of meeting a team for the fourth time in a given year, and the third time in the month of October.

“I hate that,” Beasley says with a laugh. “My motto with this group has always been ‘Just do what you do’ if we go and we play our game, then I think everything will work out. I think we’ll prepare the same way that we always do and I expect that we’ll be ready to play on Saturday.”

By Chuck Livingston