Volleyball: Rogers High sweeps Springdale High in 7A-West opener

Mackenizie Evans (15) of Springdale taps the ball over Rogers defenders Thursday at Bulldog Gymnasium in Springdale. The Lady Mounties won 3-0.
Mackenizie Evans (15) of Springdale taps the ball over Rogers defenders Thursday at Bulldog Gymnasium in Springdale. The Lady Mounties won 3-0.

SPRINGDALE -- Rogers High got off to a fast start and never looked back Thursday night.

The Lady Mounties used a pair of dominating runs in the first and second games of their 7A-West Conference volleyball opener against Springdale High to set the tone in a 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-22) sweep the Lady Bulldogs.

"I'm hoping to carry this forward and have many more successful evenings in conference play," said Rogers coach Jeana Breedlove.

Rogers (4-0, 1-0 7A-West) used a 7-0 run in the first game to break a 15-15 tie, then used a 8-2 run to erase a 5-4 Springdale lead in the second game to start the conference opening sweep.

Hope Johnson keyed the first run with six straight service points as Rogers took a commanding 22-15 lead. Johnson and Madison Sherrill then each had an ace during the run in the second game as the Lady Mounties took a 12-7 lead. Rogers had seven aces and just two service errors in the three games.

"Hope does a phenomenal job," Breedlove said. "Hope does a good job of getting it in there and moving it around a little bit. That run, and the second run, really gave us a big advantage. When we were hitting our serves in, the girls got us going with a few runs. We consider ourselves a pretty good serving team. Winning those first two put us in a good position."

Samantha Lassiter led Rogers with 12 kills while sophomores Hannah Martin and Kassidy Wall had 10 kills each. Hannah Lloyd had 30 assists for the Lady Mounties while Emily Harris and Martin had six blocks each.

"We had a lot of big kills," Breedlove said.

Springdale, however, did not go down without a fight. The Lady Bulldogs used a 10-1 run in the third game to take a 12-5 lead behind two kills and two aces by Desiree Mack. Mack finished with 12 kills, including six in the third game.

But Rogers countered with a 6-1 run behind three kills from Wall to cut the Springdale (5-3, 0-1) lead to 13-11. Kills by Martin tied the game at 18-18 and 21-21 and the sophomore ended the match with a kill for the 25-22 victory.

"We struggled defensively," said Springdale coach Kylie Moad. "Rogers' hitters did a really good job against us. We just couldn't get anything going. Nothing went our way."

Sports on 09/04/2015

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