Cabot’s a long way from making a playoff push in the 6A-Central.

But they sure got the attention of the Southside Mavericks.

Cabot took the Mavs to five sets Thursday before dropping a heart-stopping fifth set, 15-12.

The Mavericks’ 22-25, 25-10, 25-19, 16-25, 15-12 win keeps them in first place.

But just barely.

Southisde, which was coming off sweeps of Northside and Conway, had to hold its collective breath until Avery Fitzgerald’s 22nd and final kill split the defense.

“Sometimes you need those (games),” Southside coach Natalie Thorneberry said. “I love the grittiness and how we found a way to win game five. You’ve got to find the positives. There’s always a silver lining.”

Cabot (7-11, 3-6) took the opener, 25-22, nearly stole a third game, and forced a fifth game by dominating the second half of the fourth set.

“We don’t want to be that team that rolls over,” Cabot coach Anna Robertson said. “We’re playing hard.”



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Throneberry can attest to that.

“That’s not the same team we saw a month ago,” she said. “They had much better passing tonight.”

Cabot nearly blew a big lead in the first set. Up 22-15, the Mavericks sliced the lead to 23-19 before Cabot regained the momentum.

Southside dominated the second set, but had to overcame an 18-14 deficit in the third game just to have a chance in the fifth.

Hannah Hogue’s nice feed to Aleigha Johnson led to a smash and a 22-19 lead in the third game. Hayley Hall’s ace made it 23-19, and Toree Tiffee’s kill capped a 25-19 comeback.

Game over, right?

Cabot took a 13-9 lead in the fourth set, then watched the Mavericks rally to tie it on Tffee’s kill.



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But the Lady Panthers flipped the momentum and rolled to a 6-3 lead in the fifth set.


The Mavericks tied it on Johnson’s kill, and took the lead for good (10-9) on Fitzgerald’s block. Back-to-back kills by Hogue and Fitzgerald made it 13-9.

Along with Fitzgerald, Tiffee had 15 kills and Johnson and Bailey Vega finished with seven and six kills, respectively. Johnson also had four blocks.

Hogue added 44 assists and 23 digs. Kelsey Hamilton had 10 digs.
