Bentonville West sweeps SSHS in home opener
■ The Lady Panthers also dropped a road game at Bentonville High on Thursday night.
Down a set in its home opener, Siloam Springs appeared on the verge of evening up Tuesday’s volleyball match at a game apiece after roaring out to a 16-9 lead.
Unfortunately for the Lady Panthers, Bentonville West had a run of its own.
The Lady Wolverines called a timeout and following that reeled off six straight points to get back in the set, which they eventually won 26-24.
West finished off a 3-0 sweep (25-14, 26-24, 25-19) of Siloam Springs with a victory in the third set.
Reagan Ptacek led West (1-1) with 10 kills and played a big role in the Lady Wolverines’ regrouping in the second set, according to coach Julie Rowan.
“Well I think it was a combination of a lot of things, but I think the person that kept it together for us was Reagan Ptacek on the outside,” Rowan said. “She had a big night tonight, and I think she was just solid. Every swing she had was a thoughtful swing and I really think that was the key.
Then of course Ally (McCasland), our setter, had very solid serving, so that helped us keep them out of system a little bit.”
Down 16-9, West got a pair of combination blocks from Trinity Luckett and Ana Bastos, and then Luckett and McCasland. Luckett then hammered a kill and had a solo block to pull within 16-15.
Siloam Springs pulled back ahead 21-17 and had set point at 24-23 after two kills from Makenna Thomas and Jaedyn Soucie. But Bastos had two straight kills and Ptacek the final kill as the Lady Wolverines scored the last three points to take a 26-24 win.
Siloam Springs got out to a good start in the third set, pulling ahead 6-3, but West sophomore Riley Richardson came off the bench and hammered a pair of kills in the middle and Ptacek tied it at 6-6.
Thomas fired two straight aces and Soucie had another kill as Siloam Springs went up 10-7. Two kills from Emma Norberg in the middle and another from Thomas gave the Lady Panthers a 16-13 lead.
West reeled off a 12-3 run to finish the sweep.
Richardson, who had all five of her kills in the final set, had two more kills, while Ptacek, Bastos and Luckett also contributed at the net.
Luckett finished with five kills, four block assists and two solo blocks.
McCasland served four aces, including three straight to open the first set. Anna Claire Roberts led West defensively with 12 digs.
Jaedyn Soucie led Siloam Springs with four kills. Makenna Thomas and Emma Norberg each had three kills, with Thomas leading with four aces and Hattie Price three aces. Maggie Torres had 15 digs with Allison Williamson contributing six digs.
The Lady Panthers had their moments but often were passive when they should have been aggressive, said head coach Joellen Wright.
“We’re definitely going to keep striving to be the best we can be and find the rotation of six kiddos that work well together,” she said. “Six kids that are fearless because you shouldn’t be backing down and playing it safe. Playing it safe gets you beat.”
Bentonville 3, Siloam Springs 0
BENTONVILLE — With no invitational tournament to lean upon before 6A-West Conference begins, Bentonville High volleyball coach Michelle Smith has stressed the importance of the few nonconference matches the Lady Tigers will play.
Bentonville has responded so far as the defending Class 6A state champion improved to
2-0 with a 3-0 victory Thursday night over Siloam Springs in Tiger Arena.
“These games are huge,” Smith said following Bentonville’s 25-22, 25-16, 25-14 victory. “Nonconference gets you ready for conference. Obviously, we would have loved to have a tournament under our belt by now, but that’s not the case. We’re just taking things day by day.
“We’re being thankful for every game we get, and the improvement these girls have made in the last three games is unreal. I’m so proud of them. I’m proud of their fight, their grit and pulling through a long week. The physical stress, on top of the mental stress of the first week back, is a lot of anybody, especially students and student-athletes.”
Trinity Hamilton led Bentonville with 13 kills, but it even took her — as well as many of the other players — a while to get into the groove. Siloam Springs (0-3) picked up most of its points off Lady Tiger errors and had a 1312 lead before Bentonville picked up kills from Bella Engledow and London McKinney to move back into front.
Bentonville then trailed 4-2 early in the second, but the Lady Tigers scored 11 of the next 14 points and claimed a 13-7 lead following a kill by Gloria Cranney. The Lady Tigers then jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the third set and closed out the match by scoring 11 of the last 14 points.
“They started getting into a rhythm,” Smith said. “We’re working on different lineups and trying to find our niche, and it’s coming together and starting to flow. The pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit.
“Those errors are sometimes the first-game jitters and getting that adrenaline out. You hit the ball and you feel like you’re having an out-of-body experience going on. That’s what was happening in the first game, on both sides of the net.”
Maddie Lee and Reagan Tunnell each had seven kills for Bentonville, which returns to action Tuesday at Van Buren before its conference opener against Springdale Har-Ber. Jamie Myrick added a team-high 22 digs, followed by Hamilton with nine.
Makenna Thomas led Siloam Springs with seven kills, followed by Cailee Johnson with five.
Maggie Torres added 24 digs and Micah Curry 11 for the Lady Panthers.
Up next
The Lady Panthers return to action Monday at Harrison. On Tuesday they’ll be back at Panther Activity Center to face Springdale at 6:30 p.m.