Alma volleyball stays hot
By Kevin Taylor
Alma Schools
The Alma Lady Airedales aren’t ready to hop into the same ring with heavyweights Fayetteville, Conway, or Fort Smith Southside.
But the team seems to understand when to turn on the afterburners.
For the third time in four games, the Lady Airedales wrestled the jaws of defeat into a sweep of Mena on Tuesday to extend the school’s record to 4-0.
Earlier, they overcame a 22-19 deficit in the first game of the team’s contest with Charleston, and Tuesday found themselves down 18-11 in the second set against a strong Mena squad.
“I told them, ‘The good news is we won, the bad news is we made 20 mistakes.’ But the second game, to be down 18-11, that’s something we work on in practice,” Alma coach Joshua Stark said. “We work on getting the momentum back in practice. Our biggest thing is staying in the right mindset. I thought our bench did a great job of that tonight, and we fought back.”
Josie Welborn, Olivia Whipple, and Ryleigh Floyd combined for 23 kills to pace Alma to its first-ever 4-0 start, a hard-fought 27-25, 25-22, 25-13 win over Mena at Charles B. Dyer Arena.
“We all knew that we weren’t playing our best,” Welborn said of Alma’s game-two comeback. “We weren’t in the right headspace or mindset. (But) we all knew that we could fight and we could win.”
“It shows that we can fight, and we don’t really panic until it gets to a certain point, and that’s a good thing,” Stark said.
Alma travels to Huntsville Thursday and opens 5A-West play next week against Russellville.
“Honestly, it’s a great honor,” Welborn said. “This is something we talked about from the beginning of the off-season. This is something we were passionate about, making a difference for Alma, and changing our expectations.”
Football
The Alma Airedales travel to Russellville Friday, ready to put week one of the 2026 season behind them.
Alma quarterback Jay Lemieux threw three touchdown passes in last week’s 41-20 loss to Van Buren.
The Cyclones (0-1) dropped their 13th straight decision to Morrilton, 35-13. Both Alma and Russellville were victimized by penalties.
Junior Maddux Caldwell caught four passes for 110 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Dylan Jackson had nine receptions for 130 yards and a score, moving him into eighth place all-time in yards receiving behind Brayden Johnson, Sam Schlegel, Conner Stacy, Grayson Bailey, Isaac McCoy, Heath Friddle, and Johnny Thompson.
This week’s game is the 14th all-time meeting between the Cyclones and Airedales, with Russellville winning the first game in 1928. The two schools have met 12 times since 1989.
Cross Country
Sisters Jasmine Martin and freshman Brianna Martin finished fifth and sixth to lead Alma to a second-place finish at the Take Flight Invitational in Rogers.
Jasmine Martin, a junior, finished with a time of 23:23.67, followed by Brianna, a freshman, with a time of 23:24.74. Freshman teammate Saydee Hammonds was ninth (24:26.49), and Bree Allen (25:56.53) and Tori Muszanski (26:20.00) finished 18th and 21st, respectively.
Also for Alma, Gracelyn Edwards finished 23rd (26:25.82), while Sophia Kimes was 41st, Jessica Tanedo 46th, Zoey Kangas 52nd, Sarah Grimmit 56th, and Karlee Bush 86th.
Alma sophomore Tyce Bray finished 26th overall Tuesday to pace the Airedales’ boys team to an eighth-place finish.
Junior Trace Muszanski was 31st (20:41.18), while Jason Rasmussen (20:54.08) and Bentley Allen (21:01.70) finished 34th and 36th, respectively.
Sophomore Xsavier Hackler was 103rd.
GOLF
Chase Wood shot a 75, and Carson Curd and Caden Hesson both shot 77 to pace Alma this week at Ben Geren Golf Course.
Jack Taylor shot four over par, and Silas Dumond was plus nine over par.