ROGERS — The Rogers Lady Mounties survived a roller coaster of a volleyball match to survive a visit fromrival Heritage on Thursday.
Both teams played solid at times and both let mental mistakes sink them as the Lady Mounties won 25-21, 25-8, 21-25, 25-11.
The win moves the Lady Mounties (5-13, 2-5) into sixth place of the 7A-West Conference at the midpoint of the league slate.
Rogers had to rally to winGame 1, taking its first lead at 19-18 on two kills from senior Brooke Anderson. The Lady War Eagles (5-17, 0-7) regained a 21-20 lead but Rogers scored the final five points to steal the game.
The Lady Mounties then dominated the second game, jumping to a 10-1 lead and using two more big runs to quickly put it away.
Junior Emily Farnan had three early points and recorded three aces during a 7-0 run to put Rogers ahead 20-5. Sophomores Allie Krabbenhoft and Mikalah Booher, who finished witha team-high 13 kills, had winners in a game-ending 5-0 run.
But Heritage rebounded to win Game 3, leading most of the way and holding off Rogers at the end.
"(The Lady War Eagles) just wouldn't let up," Rogers coach Jeana Breedlove said. "We made some crucial mistakes that didn't help us either."
Breedlove said her team was also unfocused after the easy Game 2 win.
Heritage junior Kylee Linn, who led her team with 13 kills, had two late kills and - after Rogers got within 23-21 with a late run - another point from Linn and an ace from senior Rachael Crum ended it.
"What it comes down to, and the girls know, you have to fight," Heritage coach Sarah Miser said. "The first two games, Rogers wanted it more than we did. We had a lot of unforced errors at the end (of the match). I'm just going to contribute that to being a young team."
Rogers ended the match with a strong Game 4, jumping to a 12-5 lead and finishing it with a 9-0 run.
Senior Megan Pederson, who had 24 digs and 19 assists in the win, had several winners in the final game and an ace in the final run.
Sophomore libero Ashley Ferguson had a 25 digs and Farnan added 24 digs and 12 kills.
Lady Bulldogs 3, Lady Tigers 0
FAYETTEVILLE - Bentonville lost Thursday night for the first time in conference play, getting swept at Fayetteville 26-24, 25-20, 25-16.
The loss created a threeway tie atop the 7A-West Conference standings at the halfway point of the league round-robin. Bentonville, Fayetteville and Springdale Har-Ber all have 6-1 records.
Sydney Thurow led the Lady Tigers with nine kills and two solo blocks. Melissa Bakke and Danielle Betts each added five kills.
Rebecca Brown and Shanna Seyfarth led Bentonville (11-8-1) with 12 assists and 16 digs, respectively.
Sports, Pages 9 on 09/25/2009