Bentonville shows improvement in second victory

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 13-12 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.

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Bentonville High School Athletics

BENTONVILLE SHOWS IMPROVEMENT IN SECOND VICTORY

HENRY APPLE

nwaonline.com | 8/28/2020