By Jeff Halpern | Photos by Tommy Land 

HOT SPRINGS — A year ago, the Benton Lady Panthers lost the Class 5A state championship to Little Rock Christian 3-2 in which all five games were decided by a total of 15 points. 

Saturday night at Bank Ozk Arena, the No. 3-ranked Lady Panthers (28-1) defeated No. 5 Valley View (21-4-1) 25-21, 26-24, 25-23 for the Class 5A state title.

“I’ll take this one a lot better,” said Benton head coach Michelle Shoppach. “Our kids kept playing. In that third set, we kept pushing. They gave us a very hard time. I looked at the stats, and we had only 2 aces and that’s not like us because we normally get a lot of aces. All three sets were close, and we had to work for it.”
