ROGERS -- Fayetteville stayed unbeaten in the 7A-West Conference with a sweep of Rogers High Tuesday night.
The Lady Bulldogs (12-1, 4-0 7A-West) used strong runs the first two games before finishing the Lady Mounties off in the third game to win 3-0 (25-12, 25-17, 25-21) in King Arena.
Rogers (5-7-1, 1-3) led 6-1 in the first game and 9-5 in the second game, but Fayetteville used six aces in the first game and three more in the second game to jump to a 2-0 lead. Fayetteville had an 11-1 run in the first game and a closing 9-3 burst in the second game to take command.
"We were able to push a couple of runs from the service line that gave us the lead in each game," said Fayetteville coach Jessica Phelan said. "We were able to build a little momentum. It was back-and-forth all night, and we were able to push a few here and there. That gave us a little comfort zone."
Sophomore Haley Warner led Fayetteville with 13 kills while Hadley Spresser had seven kills. Ella May Powell had 30 assists while Abbie Kathol had 17 digs. Kathol also had two kills and a ace that helped turn a 7-4 Rogers lead into an 11-10 Lady Bulldogs lead in the second game.
"Haley is hard to stop becasue she has the big left hand," Phelan said. "We did a good job of getting her the ball and that is key for us. Ella did a good job of spreading it around, and she scored when we needed her to.
"Every night in the 7A-West, you have to be ready to battle. Rogers hung tough, but we were able to get offense from a lot of different people. We just need to continue to move forward each night and eliminate the errors on our side of the net."
The two teams were tied 12-12 in the third game and Rogers was as close as 23-20 late before Fayetteville finished off the match. Samantha Lassiter had eight kills for the Lady Mounties.
"I thought we did a good job of fighting back and keeping it tight as we could in the second match," said Rogers coach Jeana Breedlove. "The third match, we gave ourselves an opportunity to make something happen at the end. Fayetteville is a real good team, but I thought there were times we could have passed better and played a little better defense."
Sports on 09/16/2015