ROGERS — Springdale High volleyball coach Amanda Williford understood how Rogers Heritage coach Sarah Miser felt when their teams met earlier this season.
Williford said Thursday’s match was eerily similar to the previous one, but the tables were turned in Heritage’s favor.
This time hits by Springdale players sailed out of bounds and serves fell into the net. Heritage managed to earn key points and claim a 25-14, 26-24, 25-20 7A/6A-West Conference victory at War Eagle Arena.
“Heritage played how we played against them before,” Williford said. “It was totally opposite from when we played at Springdale. Tonight was our night to make silly errors.”
The Lady War Eagles avenged a 3-0 loss a couple of weeks ago at the hands of Springdale.
Heritage (13-13, 3-6 7A/6A-West) never trailed in winning the first set, taking advantage of 11 Springdale serving and hitting errors.
But the Lady War Eagles turned back a set point at 24-23 and scored three straight to win the second set. They used an 8-3 spurt to break from an 11-11 deadlock in the third set.
Sophomore Connor McNulty tapped the ball over the block and down to tie the second set at 24-24, and Nikki Van Wilpe followed with a service ace to give Heritage the lead. A Springdale hitting error then gave Heritage the set and a 2-0 lead.
The Lady War Eagles got the offense clicking with five kills from four different players in the third set run to take control.
Both of Heritage’s key runs in the final two sets came when Springdale’s 6-foot-2 junior Mariah King was on the bench. She finished with a match-high 11 kills to go with three solo blocks and three block assists for the Lady Red’Dogs (7-10, 4-5).
Heritage coach Sarah Miser acknowledged her team’s plan was to serve aggressively to try to take King out of the offense and take advantage when she rotates out.
“Score, score, score when she’s out,” Miser said. “I also told them we needed to try to be steady the whole way through. We had a lot of good long rallies, and our girls came up with points at the end with good steady play.”
Senior libero Kendra Linn finished with a match-high 27 digs, while Springdale libero Anna Holcomb contributed 24 digs. Van Wilpe, McNulty and Emily Kurtz led Heritage with seven kills each.