BENTONVILLE -- Sadie Pate may have tried every way possible to deliver points for Bentonville's volleyball team, and many of them worked Thursday night.
The Lady Tigers' senior co-captain had a team-high 17 kills and added three aces to lead Bentonville to a 3-0 victory over Springdale High during 7A-West Conference action in Tiger Arena.
"Sadie has power and smarts, and she can see the court like a college player at times," Bentonville coach Michelle Smith said after the 25-23, 25-13, 25-15 decision. "She's very smart, and a lot of her moves -- that's really hard to coach.
"It's a split-second decision that she makes, and that comes with a lot of maturity. As you watch a lot of these athletes grow up, at times they don't get that until they're college. She has it now."
Pate had nine kills and an ace in a first set where neither team scored more than three points in a row. Springdale (7-19, 0-11 7A-West) had a 21-20 lead, but three straight errors allowed Bentonville (16-9, 10-1) to move in front before Pate closed it out with two kills.
The Lady Tigers found their groove after that and began to take control. Kayton Coffee's back-to-back aces capped a string of six straight points early in the second set, then a third Coffee ace helped Bentonville enjoy a 22-11 cushion late in the second set.
"As we stopped worrying about the score and more about the game, then the girls came alive," Smith said. "I think we were still a little shaken up and focusing on what happened Tuesday night, and after we realized there was nothing we could do about the past and focused on the present, we came alive."
Pate's versatility came into play during the third set, particularly during a 13-3 run that helped Bentonville take control. She used her power to break a 4-4 tie, then later added a crosscourt kill, a pair of tips over Springdale's front line and capped it when she pushed the ball into a spot that the Lady Bulldogs had vacated.
"I thought our girls did a good job in the first set," Springdale coach Kylie Moad said. "We had a lot of intensity and a lot of fight. We dug ourselves in a couple of holes in Game 2 and 3 that we struggled to get out of.
"We couldn't get things rolling, and we let Bentonville's hitters get hot. We couldn't come back."
Sports on 10/09/2015