FAYETTEVILLE — One winning streak stopped, another started for Fayetteville volleyball.
After dropping their first match of the season over the weekend to Washburn (Kan.) Rural in the Tri-State Challenge, Fayetteville wasted no time bouncing back. With Rogers Heritage in Bulldog Arena on Tuesday for a 7A/6A-West Conference matchup, the Lady’Dogs showed no signs of a hangover from their first defeat in a convincing 25-5, 25-10, 25-6 win against the Lady War Eagles.
“We didn’t make any major changes, but we made a couple of little changes from the weekend and I thought we really executed,” Fayetteville coach Jessica Phelan said. “We did a good job of distributing the ball to a lot of people and as a whole we did a really good job.
“Overall I was pleased with the performance and I’m happy with where we’re at as a team.”
Heritage (12-13, 2-6 7A/6A-West) fell victim to sizable Fayetteville runs in all three games. The Lady Bulldogs used a 15-1 run to finish off game one. In game two, Heritage battled to within 17-10 before Fayetteville ended the game on an 8-0 run. And in game three, the Lady ‘Dogs led 14-5 in game one before scoring 11 of the final 12 points.
“Fayetteville is kind of in a league of their own with the athletes that they have,” Lady War Eagles coach Sarah Miser said. “They’re big and with their skills they’re impressive.
“I told the girls Fayetteville is probably going to be the best team you’ll see. So use it to your advantage. Practice your digging off their hitting, practice your hitting off their blocks. Just do those things because we won’t get that kind of practice in our own gym. And I was proud to see that even at the end they had their humor and they still worked to get better.”
Aubrey Edie had 30 assists, seven kills and four aces for Fayetteville and Mikayla Avery added 15 kills. Hannah Pinter also contributed 10 digs and eight kills and Kennedie Daniel finished with eight kills.
Fayetteville hosts Siloam Springs on Thursday and Rogers Heritage returns home Thursday to face Springdale High.