BENTONVILLE -- The points came in bunches for Bentonville's volleyball team Thursday night, and Rogers High couldn't find an easy way to make them stop.
The Lady Tigers continued their winning ways in 7A-West Conference play with few problems as they rolled to a 3-0 victory over the Lady Mounties in Tiger Arena. Bentonville (7-4, 3-0) briefly trailed only once in the match as it went on to extend their conference win streak to 17 straight matches.
"They came out of the starting gates with a lot of energy and took control of the game right away," Bentonville coach Michelle Smith said after the 25-13, 25-16, 25-12 decision. "That fed into Game 2 and Game 3. I could be nit-picky about it, but I'm very happy and pleased with the outcome and the scores. The scores were very comfortable."
The Lady Tigers' one-two punch of Sadie Pate and Emma Palasak each contributed eight kills, while sophomore left-hander Tory Lowry added six more. Lowry also had two aces, and both of them came in the first serious scoring run as Bentonville scored 12 of 13 points and led 16-5 in the first game after a Pate ace.
Rogers (4-2, 1-2) didn't help its cause as it suffered with a number of unforced errors and net violations. The Lady Mounties' only lead came with a Samantha Lassiter block and a Bentonville error to start the second set, but the Lady Tigers responded with five straight points to take the lead for good.
"We helped them out a lot," Rogers coach Jenna Breedlove said. "We were just making mistake after mistake after mistake -- lots of unforced errors. You can't play like that against a bad team, much less a good team. You do that against a good team, and you get slaughtered."
Bentonville then proceeded to complete the sweep with eight unanswered points in the third set and turned a two-point lead into a 14-4 cushion. The Lady Tigers then countered three straight Rogers points with seven of their own and cruised from that point.
Bentonville returns to 7A-West Conference action Tuesday at Springdale High, while Rogers returns home to host Fayetteville.
Sports on 09/11/2015