Har-Ber rides hot streak to victory over Fayetteville
Posted on Wednesday, October 8, 2008
SPRINGDALE - The momentum gained from last Thursday's sweep of defending 7 A state volleyball champion Bentonville propelled Springdale Har-Ber to another sweep Tuesday night at Wildcat Arena.
Har-Ber won 10 of the final 12 points in Game 2 to sweep defending state runner-up Fayetteville (25-18, 25-21, 25-17 ). The win gave Har-Ber the season sweep of Fayetteville, which fell in three games during the first meeting at Lady Bulldog Gym.
Lady Wildcats (16-4, 6-4 ) coach Sandy Jones said last Thursday's win ignited a hot streak that carried into Tuesday.
"We're on a roll right now," she said. "We played Bentonville up there and beat them in three. Fayetteville comes to the house, we beat them in three. We're just on a high right now. Hopefully we can continue rolling through the rest of the season."
The Lady Wildcats' service game blunted Fayetteville's aggressive play. Their 15 aces seized the initiative and forestalled any momentum the Lady Bulldogs tried to muster.
"We work hard in practice on serves," Jones said. "If they miss more than one serve out of the 30, we run line drills for every one. We're really focusing on serves."
Fayetteville coach Jessica Phelan said Har-Ber's service game keyed its victory. An inability to handle serves has been a familiar refrain for Fayetteville this season.
"The real difference tonight was serve receive," Phelan said. "We were on our heels a little bit on serve receive and gave them too many easy points. If we can make a concerted effort to improve our serve receive, we're going to be in a much better position to win these matches.
"It doesn't matter what level of volleyball you're looking at. It could be eighth grade or Olympic volleyball. The team that serves and passes better is generally going to be in a position to win."
Phelan said the Lady Bulldogs have acquitted themselves well in most aspects of the game, but the service game is an element that's been lacking.
"We're doing good things to score points in other areas of the game," she said. "We're hitting pretty well. We're blocking pretty well, and we're playing pretty good defense. What we really want is to make a concerted effort to work on picking up our service game and picking up our serve receive."
Six aces helped Har-Ber claim Game 1, 25-18. Fayetteville regrouped in Game 2, with Haley Martin tallying four of her team-high nine kills. The Lady Bulldogs led 19-15 but couldn't close out the Lady Wildcats.
Junior Kirstie Hasseltine swatted three of her gamehigh 12 kills to spur a 10-2 run that put Game 2 in Har-Ber's column. The ensuing two-game deficit proved too substantial for Fayetteville to overcome.
"We have to finish," Phelan said. "We have to find a way to finish. The things we're doing well to score points look really pretty. With that little run, we let Har-Ber come back on us. We just have to tough it out."
Libero Katie Collins repelled some of Fayetteville's best swings. She had a game-high 22 digs that kept the back row connected to the front.
"In the last few games being able to get balls up on the back row have created opportunities at the net," Jones said.
Courtney Bell contributed 10 kills to Har-Ber's victory, and Sydney Marsellis'four aces led both teams. Ashleigh Price had six kills for Fayetteville, and Cassie Clarke added 15 assists.
The Lady Bulldogs travel to Rogers Thursday, and Har-Ber travels to Fort Smith Northside.
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