Bentonville holds off Rogers in five sets

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.

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BENTONVILLE HOLDS OFF ROGERS IN FIVE SETS

PAUL BOYD

Arkansas Online | 9/15/2017

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlie Kaijo