CONWAY — Fayetteville looked every bit the top seed in Wednesday’s quarterfinals of the Class 7A state volleyball tournament.
Junior Paige Gocke made 13 kills and junior Mikayla Avery served five aces as the Lady Bulldogs made quick work of Fort Smith Northside 25-12, 25-12, 25-15 at Buzz Bolding Arena.
“I thought we did a good job today of executing,” Fayetteville Coach Jessica Phelan said. “We played with a lot of focus and consistency, which was good to see.”
Fayetteville (33-1) took only 54 minutes to dispose of the Lady Bears, who won a two hour, eight-minute, five-game match over Mount St. Mary in Tuesday’s first round.
The Lady Bulldogs scored 13 of the match’s first 15 points and held a lead of 12-3 in the second game. Northside (19-16) scored the first point of the third game, but Fayetteville scored the next six.
The only time Phelan said she considered taking a timeout in the match came in the second game when Northside scored five consecutive points to close to within 15-10.
“I thought about [calling a timeout] during that time,” said Phelan, whose team has won 17 consecutive matches. “But we regained our composure.”
Junior setter Aubrey Edie led the Lady Bulldogs with 30 assists; junior outside hitter Tatum Marshall led the team with 18 digs and junior outside hitter Hannah Pinter had 13 digs and 11 kills.
FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 3, BRYANT 2
Junior outside hitter Hannah Dickinson made 16 kills as the Confederettes (27-9) overcame a 2-0 game deficit for a 21-25, 21-25, 25-21, 25-8, 15-12 victory over the Lady Hornets (12-6).
Southside also picked up 14 kills from sophomore middle hitter Drew Jones and seven kills and eight blocks from junior middle blocker Payton Hamilton.
Bryant junior outside hitter McKenzie Rice led her team with 14 kills, while senior middle blocker Brianna White and junior outside hitter Brooke Howell each had 10 kills.
CONWAY 3, SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 0
Junior outside hitter Sara Stovall led the Lady Wampus Cats (20-3) with 11 kills and senior Ferrin Macon had 25 assists and five blocks as Conway defeated the Lady Wildcats 25-19, 25-21, 25-18.
Har-ber (22-14) was led by senior Summer Morgan with 10 kills and three blocks while senior Jordan Foley had 25 digs and senior Katie Huff made eight kills.
BENTONVILLE 3, ROGERS 0
Senior Shayne Wiedemann had a game high 14 kills and the Lady Tigers (30-7) registered 11 aces in a victory over conference-rival Rogers (10-21).
Bentonville won the match 25-8, 25-12, 25-16.
Senior Haley Campbell led Bentonville with three aces while Melissa Bakke and Jacey Williams had two each. Bakke also had 11 kills.
Rogers was led by senior Allie Krabbenhoft, who had a team-high nine kills.
Sports, Pages 19 on 10/27/2011