Tigers Advance to State On Regional Runner-Up

Posted Date: 10/30/2025

Stacking wins, Mansfield was as hot as any volleyball team entering the 3A-North Regional Tournament in Lincoln this past week. Fresh off their undefeated conference and district title run, the Lady Tigers had the best overall record of any of the eight entries on the bracket. Unfortunately, after sweeping victories against Dover and Mayflower to launch their postseason path, the Tiger fire finally ultimately cooled in the finals.

Paris, the defending 3A state volleyball champions, reminded the regional contenders including Mansfield why the Eagles were still the champs. The Lady Tigers fell to the Eagles in the regional finals 1-3. With the loss, Mansfield took home the runner-up plaque. They did, however, still qualify for the state tournament scheduled for Oct 27-29 at Little Rock’s Central Arkansas Christian High School.

“I knew going into it they (Paris) were going to be good,” said Mansfield head coach Kaylie Pyles. “I watched films on them and I’ve watched them for a while. I knew that was going to be one of our big competitors. They have great hitters, great servers. They’re the defending state champions.”

After playing spectacularly in the first two rounds, Mansfield struggled to find a consistent rhythm in the finals. Paris had much to do with that. The Eagles blocked well on defense and hit hard on offense. The results (17-25, 19-25, 27-25 and 12-25) were obviously disappointing to the runner-up Tigers.

“I just don’t think we were used to people hitting that much,” offered Pyles as she reviewed what went awry against the Eagles. “We usually have a lot of blocking. We didn’t block well yesterday. We did not pass well. Those were two of our weak points. 

“We couldn’t serve-receive. We couldn’t pass. If you can’t do that, you can’t set - you can’t hit. So, that kind of took us out of the ball game for a long time.

“We just started off a little slow,” the coach continued. “We gained that momentum at the end of the third set, but they took it after that.”

Mansfield senior middle and All-State athlete, Kaylee Ward, agreed with her coach. “They were really good,” said Ward, “but to be honest, we could have beat them. We kinda showed up asleep, a little slow.

“I think that game was kinda just a little more mental than anything,” offered Ward about the cerebral strain volleyball’s intricacies can demand, “kind of got in our head and stuff. I think we still played pretty well, but there were little mistakes on our part that shouldn’t have happened.

“We weren’t down by a lot on most of the sets,” the Tiger veteran continued. “We were right there with them. It’s just we got in our heads when they got on a run. That’s what kinda kept us down.”

Mansfield’s red and white fight came with renewed hope in the third set. After dropping the first two sets by modest margins, the Tigers roared out to a 8-1 lead in the third. A successful service rotation by MHS outside hitter Abby Smith propelled a much needed Mansfield boost. 

Seeing a conveyance in energy, Paris took a timeout to stop the mounting point production from the Smith service shift. The Eagles rallied from there cutting chunks from the TIger lead until the score found itself knotted at 15-all. From there, the two teams battled “tit for tat” to finish the frame. 

In that third set, the scoreboard showed tally marks tied at 17-17, 18-18, 24-24 and 25-25. No doubt, the intense battle motivated Mansfield senior hitter. Ward was spectacular down the stretch winning five of the final six points to close the set 27-25 for Mansfield’s only set win.

In the final flurry, Ward peppered a kill off an Adeline Godwin assist. A tip by the heads up senior middle followed, dropping over stretched out Eagle wings for another point. A fantastic save by junior front row specialist Whitley Boyd then found its way for another Ward kill.

Paris senior Rowan Patterson countered with what she was doing best. The Paris striker found a well placed set by Eagle senior Abby Yarnell for a thunderous spike. That tied the score for the final time in the penultimate set.

Ward was unimpressed. The Tiger titan responded with consecutive power punches to end the third set. Once again, both Ward kills came off back to back Godwin sets.

Paris responded by flapping their wings in the fourth. In particular, Patterson, Yarnell, and Ashton Ihle spread their feathers to fan much of the scoring the rest of the way. The Eagle trio summoned their championship pedigree to race out to a 19-9 lead. Skirting two Tiger timeouts, Paris finished the deal and claimed the regional championship.

Despite the loss, Mansfield still advanced in their postseason journey as a second seed into this week’s 3A State Tournament. The Tigers have at least momentum built from two impressive regional wins. Those include victories over Dover (25-10, 25-17 and 25-8) in the quarter-finals and Mayflower (25-23, 25-23 and 25-23) in a semi-final thriller.

“That game we played pretty good,” smiled Ward, reflecting back to her team’s spectacular three set series with Mayflower. “We were pumping it! We didn’t get down in our heads… the sets were very close. We stayed calm and we had energy - talked through it all.”

Mansfield was scheduled to play Central Arkansas Christian, the host of the 3A State Tournament, in the first round on Monday. The 12-team bracket was scheduled to run Monday through Wednesday with the state championship game to be played on November 1 in Hot Springs.