Bentonville sweeps past Rogers Heritage

Sadie Pate of Bentonville hits the ball past Heritage defenders during Tuesday’s game at Heritage High School.
Sadie Pate of Bentonville hits the ball past Heritage defenders during Tuesday’s game at Heritage High School.

ROGERS --Bentonville volleyball coach Michelle Smith was a bit worried how her team might come out Tuesday night, after a long weekend at a tournament in St. Louis.

But the Lady Tigers gave Smith exactly what she was looking for with a convincing 3-0 (25-13, 25-20, 25-13) sweep of Rogers Heritage at War Eagle Arena.

Bentonville (12-8, 6-0 7A-West Conference) trailed only briefly in the first two sets to set up a showdown at league co-leader Fayetteville on Thursday.

Smith said her team, which lost four of five matches in St. Louis on Saturday, was not looking ahead, since Heritage split two sets against the Lady Tigers in a preseason jamboree.

"I was proud of how the girls came out tonight and didn't let anything fluster them," Smith said. "Heritage is a much improved team and this year they are definitely a force to be reckoned with. Being on their home court, if that door of opportunity opens it could have gotten pretty scary pretty fast and our girls didn't allow that to happen."

Bentonville never gave the Lady War Eagles (8-6, 2-4) much of a chance. Heritage scored the first two points in the opening set, but the Lady Tigers responded with a 12-point run with senior Kayton Coffee at the service line. The Lady War Eagles scored the first point of the second set, but Bentonville came back with a 5-1 spurt to take control and Heritage never led again.

Sophomore Emma Palasak led a balanced attack with a match-high 10 kills, while senior Sadie Pate chipped in eight kills. Sophomore middle Grace Joyce was also active at the net with five kills and 3.5 blocks. Coffee dished out 21 assists to go with three aces as Bentonville finished with nine as a team. Senior libero Savannah King also added a match-high 16 digs.

Heritage coach Sarah Miser said the Lady Tigers' aggressive serving set the tone.

"Bentonville did a great job serving us out of our offense tonight," Miser said. "We could not get passes to where our setters could run an efficient offense. Our setters were kept setting on the run. Our hitters were hitting off the net. I don't feel like we ever got into a good offense momentum. I felt like we were always on our heels.

"They are a very aggressive team. To counter teams like that, you have to be just as agressive."

Senior outside hitter Elleson Dunagin led Heritage with nine kills and nine digs, while Alye Darter had a team-high 10 digs. CJ Landram and Regan Turner added three blocks each.

Heritage finishes the first round of conference play at crosstown rival Rogers High on Thursday.

Sports on 09/23/2015

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