Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Bentonville sweeps Van Buren in high school volleyball matchup.
BENTONVILLE — Senior Savanna Riney torched Van Buren for 18 kills with only two errors to lead Bentonville High to a 25-17, 25-16, 25-18 win over the Lady Pointers in 6A-West Conference volleyball on Tuesday night at Tiger Arena.
The Lady Tigers improved to 6-3 overall and 1-1 in the 6A-West, and dominated play most of the evening despite trailing early in each of the final two sets.
Riney had three kills in a 7-0 spurt in the second set that turned an 8-6 deficit into a 13-8 advantage and the Lady Tigers cruised to the 2-0 advantage. A 6-0 run in the third set gave Bentonville a 12-7 advantage en route to the sweep.
Bentonville coach Michelle Smith praised Riney for her frontrow play, but she was also pleased with her team’s defense, which registered 59 digs in the three-set match. Libero Kloey Eakin finished with nearly half the team total with 27 on her own.
“The girls kept their composure, I was really proud of them,” Smith said. “Defensively, you saw it in that last rally. It was unreal. I was so proud of them. Because Van Buren has some big hitters at the net and they just couldn’t get into a rhythm with our defense doing the job they did tonight.”
Trinty Hamilton registered a double-double with 10 kills and 10 digs for the Lady Tigers, while Callie Neumann added 8 kills. Taylor Shapley dished out a match-high 31 assists to go with 7 digs. Riney also chipped in 6 digs and 2 aces.
The Lady Tigers enjoyed a nice night offensively as well, hitting a sizzling .341 as a team. Riney hit .552 on the night, while Neumann finished with a blazing .727 hitting percentage with no errors on her 8 kills.
Zoe Morrison and Grace Doolittle led Van Buren (5-4, 1-1) with 8 kills each, while Brianna Ball dished out 18 assists. Brooke Moore also led the Lady Pointers with 5 digs.
SPRINGDALE HAR-BER 3, ROGERS HERITAGE 0
Sophomore Kat Cooper finished with a match-high 15 kills to lead the Lady Wildcats to a 25-10, 25-21, 25-11 win over Rogers Heritage on Tuesday night.
Skylar Fernandez had 5 kills, 16 assists and team-highs of 4 aces and 10 digs for Har-Ber (7-3, 2-0 6A-West). Mackenzie White chipped in eight kills, while Caylan Koons dished out a team-best 25 assists.
Brittney War led Heritage (41, 1-1 6A-West) with 12 digs, while Yanisbeth Sanchez chipped in 6 kills. Ava Cate Cameron handed out 11 assists.
FAYETTEVILLE 3, ROGERS HIGH 0
Arianna Walter was strong at the net with 7 kills and 5 blocks to lead the Lady Purple Bulldogs to a 25-12, 25-23, 25-10 win over the Lady Mounties.
Freshman Kennedy Pheland dished out 23 assists, while Rosana Hicks had a team-high 8 kills for Fayetteville (10-1, 2-0).
The Lady Mounties were led by Gracie Carr with 6 kills, while Ryley Martin added 5 kills and Brooke Park chipped in 8 digs.
BENTONVILLE WEST 3, SPRINGDALE HIGH 2
Kortney Puckett hammered 19 kills and added 11 digs to lead the Lady Wolverines to a tough 19-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-19, 15-9 win on Tuesday.
Reagan Ptacek added 13 kills, while Ally McCasland handed out 42 assists for West.
Amaya Johnson had 9 kills for Springdale (3-5, 0-2) and Matty Chong Gum had 13 assists. Beth Kobeney had 24 digs.
FORT SMITH SOUTHSIDE 3, CABOT 0
Junior Avery Fitzgerald registered a double-double with 18 kills and 10 digs, along with 3 aces to lead the Lady Rebels to a 25-22, 258, 25-19 win over Cabot in 6A-Central Conference play.
Toree Tiffee added 10 kills, while Hannah Hogue finished with 31 assists and 8 digs for Southside (6-4, 1-1). Kelsey Hamilton contributed a team-high 17 digs.