ROGERS -- Bentonville remained in first place alone and undefeated in 7A-West Conference volleyball Thursday night, but the Lady Tigers needed a late flurry to claim the 3-2 (19-25, 25-17, 25-13, 22-25, 15-10) win over Rogers High in King Arena.
Bentonville (11-3, 5-0 7A-West) used a 9-2 surge in the fifth set spurred by senior Tymber Riley to take a commanding 12-4 lead and held off a late challenge for the win.
Riley had three kills and two service aces during that key run to help her team take control, after Rogers led all the way in the fourth set to force the deciding fifth.
Bentonville coach Michelle Smith credited Rogers for outstanding play, but also said her team was not ready to play.
"Rogers showed a lot of fight," Smith said. "It took us a while to wake up. Once we finally got into rhythm I saw our old team come back. But going to five is a big congratulations to Rogers. They played their hearts out tonight and they deserve all the credit in the world even though we won.
"Being up 2-1, it was do or die for Rogers. I don't think our girls took that seriously again. And next thing you know we're in game five fighting for a win. I'm proud of our girls. I'm proud of how they stepped up in the second half of the night. But I'm not going to take anything away from Rogers because they played phenomenal."
Riley led the Lady Tigers with 11 kills and tied for match hones with 24 digs with teammate Tori Lowry. Riley also contributed four aces. Emma Palasak also chipped in 11 kills. Setter Baylee Barganier also added 36 assists, 11 digs and two aces.
Rogers coach Christina Lawrence said her team, which had struggled to find consistency thus far, turned a corner even in a loss.
"I think this season we've been switching things up," Lawrence said. "We've been struggling at finding things that have been working for us. We've been trying to get them to pull it all together and work hard at practice. I think they finally realized tonight, we're not just wasting our breath. They put it all together. We had everybody here and it's like we've been preaching all year, we've got the talent.
"I thought our attackers did a great job keeping the ball in play. We're really happy and excited for the rest of the season. It was a great game for us."
Hannah Martin led the Lady Mounties (7-11, 2-3) with a match-high 19 kills, 11 digs, nine blocks and three blocks. Anna Randels chipped in seven kills and eight digs. Libero Makenna Bouma also contributed 11 digs.
Van Buren 3, Springdale High 2
Down 2-0 entering the third set Thursday night, Van Buren turned it on.
The Lady Pointers rallied for a five-set win (27-29, 18-25, 25-18, 25-9, 15-9) at Springdale to grab its second win in 7A-West play. Springdale drops to 7-4-1 overall and 2-3 in conference matches.
Van Buren junior Alex Dupree led the way with 12 kills and three aces while sophomore Grace Doolittle added eight kills. Springdale's Zoe Schmidt and KeKe Turner led with seven kills each. Kaleigh Breathitt finished with 31 digs and Jessie Davis had 27 digs. Aliyah Brown recorded 14 assists and Annalia Slater had 13.
Bentonville West 3, Rogers Heritage 1
Kortney Puckett had 19 kills and three aces to lead West to a 25-13, 29-31, 25-22, 25-21 victory over Heritage in Wolverine Arena, snapping the Lady Wolverines' three-match losing skid.
Kerryann Ptacek added 13 kills, including to cap a string of six unanswered points to help West (5-8, 2-3) take the lead for good in the fourth set, while Emerson Traweek added 10. Winnie Spurlock added 46 assists for the Lady Wolverines.
Sydney Frus paced Heritage (3-9-1, 0-5) with 15 kills, while Jaclyn Neff contributed a team-high 29 assists. Erica Reaser and Berenice Morales added 17 digs apiece.
Shiloh Christian 3, Gravette 0
The Lady Saints won the program's 54th consecutive conference match in a 25-13, 25-16, 25-18 sweep of Gravette.
Lexi Richards had 22 kills, 8 digs and 3 aces for the Lady Saints (7-7, 6-0 4-1 Conference). Taylor Larson had 9 digs, Alex Bottorff had 5 aces and Jentry Lantzsch and Hattie McDonald combined for 32 assists.
Pea Ridge 3, Green Forest 0
The Lady Blackhawks rolled to a 25-12, 25-23, 25-13 sweep of the Lady Tigers.
Cassidy Mooneyhan and Bridget Willis each had 5 aces for Pea Ridge. Kynley Burton added 10 kills.
Sports on 09/15/2017