CENTERTON -- Bentonville West avenged a five-set loss to rival Bentonville earlier this season and took down the Tigers 25-21, 25-16, 22-25, 25-15 on Thursday night at Wolverine Arena.
The Wolverines celebrated senior night prior to the match's start, and the five players honored rose to the occasion. Seniors Ana Bastos, Riley Richardson and Trinity Luckett each had double-digit kills, and the three combined for 42 on the night.
"I feel like they came to play," Bentonville West coach Julie Rowan said. "We had a rough outing on Tuesday at Har-Ber, so I think that kind of helped fuel the fire tonight, You know, that feeling of not playing up to your potential really stinks. And so they were ready to fix it."
Bentonville West played with high energy and stormed out to an early lead in the first set. Riley Richardson sent an emphatic block over the net to make the score 14-8, causing the Tigers to call their first timeout. West kept its good streak of play going, and after a Trinity Luckett spike made the score 17-11, Bentonville spent another timeout.
The Tigers then composed a 10-5 run, capped with a kill from Victoria Otter, to close the gap to 22-21. From there, West scored four straight points to win the set, 25-22, a stretch highlighted by kills from three different players. The Wolverines never trailed in the opening frame.
It was deja vu for Bentonville West early in the second period. The Wolverines bolted out to an 13-7 advantage after Luckett scored off two aces. Then it became the Richardson show, who had a flurry of three kills to put West ahead 17-10.
"She's hitting at such a high level," Rowan said. "And she just finds a way to get the kill and keeps her errors low. That's her biggest thing right now, is that she keeps her errors low and then just keeps on swinging. She is very aware of what's going on. If she gets blocked once she's gonna make a change."
Olivia Thornton finished the job, getting back-to-back aces to end a dominant 25-16 set win for the Wolverines.
Bentonville finally got its first lead of the match during the third set, going ahead 2-0. The advantage didn't last long. West went on an 11-3 run to take a sizeable lead and forced the Tigers to call a timeout.
That was when Bentonville took over. After falling behind 19-13, the Tigers scored seven unanswered to take a 20-19 lead. They kept the dominant stretch rolling, highlighted by a pair of kills from Madison Hooper, and won 25-22 to force a fourth set.
Not only did Bentonville overcome a slow start in the period, but also some mental blocks. Four different questionable calls in the middle of the set seemed to all go West's way, which looked to put a dent in Bentonville's chances of make a comeback.
"We talked about that in the locker room (after the game)," Bentonville coach Allison Venable said. "They were very proud of the way that they kept themselves composed, and they kept fighting."
The Tigers kept the momentum rolling in the next set, taking a 3-0 lead, then West turned the tide. After putting a string of six straight points together, the Wolverines grabbed a 9-6 advantage which forced a Bentonville timeout. Richardson kept the Wolverines kept rolling with four kills in the set, and shut the door on Bentonville, winning 25-15.
Rowan said it was pertinent her team show resiliency and bounce back from the third set loss.
"It was super critical at this point in the season," she said. "Because we haven't done that. Like on Monday night, we had Southside down two sets to none and then we lost the last three. So, I feel like that's been a little bit of a weakness, and it was nice to overcome that."
Richardson led the team in hitting percentage (48%) and finished the night with 13 kills. She said getting a win over Bentonville on senior night was special.
"It feels amazing," Richardson said. "Exhilarating, really, like I could cry. This team, and this game, it's my favorite thing in life. It has my heart."
West had 55 kills on the game, directly a result of great setting from Nandhini Praveen who was credited with 51 assists. Luckett led the way with 16 kills.
"We're besties," Richardson said of Praveen. "You know, we love each other, and it carries over to the court for sure. She's super great whenever she gets a great pass she will always set us up."
Olivia Thornton had a solid game for the Wolverines, chipping in 10 kills and 5 aces. Anneliese Schonaur led the team with 22 digs.
Bentonville was led by Madison Hooper's 11 kills. Gloria Cranney and Audrey Adair both had 17 assists, and Ella Aprea had 22 digs. Reagan Tunnell and Otter both had five blocks for the Tigers.
Springdale Har-Ber 3, Rogers Heritage 0
Brooklyn Ware hammered 11 kills and Korlynn Hall added eight to lead the Lady Wildcats to a 25-7, 25-13, 25-11 win over the Lady War Eagles.
Ridglee Thompson dished out a team-best 17 assists to go with five aces, while Kinley Cobb added four aces for Har-Ber (12-5, 8-2 6A-West). Galatia Andrew also anchored the defense with 20 digs.
Fayetteville 3, Fort Smith Northside 0
Brooke Rockwell blasted 19 kills and Maddie Lafata added 10 to lead the Lady Purple Bulldogs to a 25-13, 25-16, 25-16 win over the Lady Bears.
Ashley Ruff finished with 11 digs to surpass 1,000 for her career. Kennedy Phelan also dished out 33 assists and added five aces for Fayetteville (23-1, 10-0 6A-West).
Rogers 3, Springdale 0
Loryn Elkins and Brooklyn Weaver finished with 11 kills each to lead the Lady Mounties to a 25-18, 25-22, 25-7 win.
Dahana Tuomala and Olyvia Hall chipped in five kills each. Marissa Milbrodt dished out 17 assists. Madison Rhea led Roers with 22 digs and Hailey Prendes added 11.
Shiloh Christian 3, Gravette 0
Ryan Russell put up 16 kills to go with six aces to lead the Lady Saints to a 25-23, 25-17, 25-12 win.
Caroline Ramsey added eight kills for Shiloh Christian (14-3, 9-0 4A-Northwest), while Laila Creighton contributed 19 assists and four aces. Bella Bonanno also finished with 21 digs and four aces.
Greenbrier 3, Van Buren 2
The Lady Pointers fell in a tough 5A-West Conference clash in five sets. Greenbrier defeated Van Buren 27-29, 25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 15-9.
Aubrie McGhee led Van Buren with 14 kills, but Bri Ball registered a double-double with 10 kills and 20 assists. Avary Smith chipped in nine kills and Maddie Feeny contributed 26 digs for the Lady Pointers (10-6, 6-2).