ROGERS — Fayetteville doesn’t have to worry about Bentonville anymore.
After two consecutive seasons that ended with heartbreaking losses to Bentonville in the Class 7A volleyball state championship game, the Lady Bulldogs fought off nerves and overcame a brief second-set breakdown in a 25-16, 24-26, 25-19, 25-19 semifinal victory Thursday at War Eagle Arena.
The victory sends Fayetteville (34-3) to the championship match, where it will face Fort Smith Southside at 7 p.m. Saturday at Valley View High School.
“We obviously have a lot of respect for Bentonville and for their program, and they are a formidable opponent,” Fayetteville Coach Jessica Phelan said. “Even though we were 3-0 against them this season coming into this match, the records should have been 0-0 because it was tournament time.
“They played us a great match, and I’m just pleased to come away with the win.”
Nerves appeared to affect both teams early in the match - and perhaps Fayetteville even more - as Bentonville (24-10) built a 9-5 lead in the opening set. Fayetteville settled in after that and scored 20 of the final 29 points for the 25-16 victory.
Bentonville took charge again early in the second set, but Fayetteville rallied and appeared on the verge of taking control. But despite having a match point at 24-22, Bentonville scored four consecutive points to even the match with 26-24 victory.
“It was kind of a bitter ending there,” Phelan said, “but we can only control what’s in front of us and we just kept playing.”
The Lady Tigers fought Fayetteville close in the final two sets before late runs in both games allowed Fayetteville to pull away.
“I’m very proud of our girls,” Bentonville Coach Michelle Smith said.
“This one game does not sum up our season, and we did some amazing things this season with some amazing players.
“Hats off to Fayetteville.They have a great team this year and they fought very hard, and so did our girls. We just came up a little short in the end.”
Mikayla Avery had 21 kills and Hannah Pinter 17 for Fayetteville, while Aubrey Edie finished with 40 assists. Andrea Kathol and Taylor Crockett also contributed 14 and 12 digs, respectively.
Haley Seyfarth led Bentonville with 29 assists, and Hailey McNee added 15 kills. Sabrina Shepherd had 14 digs.
FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 3, CONWAY 0
Drew Jones had 21 kills and Sarita Stegall had 31 assists as 7A-Central third seed Fort Smith Southside held off a furious Conway rally in the first game, then finished off the Lady Wampus Cats 25-23, 25-19, 25-22 to advance to the championship match.
Conway, the top seed from the 7ACentral, trailed by seven points midway through the first game but rallied to tie the score before the Confederettes closed it out by scoring three of the final four points.
After Southside won the second set in more convincing fashion, Conway put together one final rally in the third game. But despite Conway pulling within a point of Southside late in the set, the Confederettes pulled away.
Taylor Hamilton added 17 kills for Southside.
Sports, Pages 24 on 11/02/2012