Van Buren knocks off West

CENTERTON -- Van Buren's hopes of remaining near the top of the 6A-West Conference volleyball standings took a wrong turn Tuesday night when it dropped the first set against Bentonville West. The Lady Pointers didn't need long to regroup and put themselves back on course with a 3-1 victory over the short-handed Lady Wolverines in Wolverine Arena. "This league is so tough, and you have to be on every night," Van Buren coach Brent Reeves said after the 23-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-22 win. "To come to Bentonville West, which is a good team, and get a win on the road, this is big for us. "It seems like we've been tense lately, so I've been trying to tell them to play ball and enjoy themselves. I want them to have fun, be confident and play to win. I thought they did. They kept their composure very well after a loss and played hard." Van Buren (8-5, 4-2) briefly trailed 15-14 in the second game before it scored five straight points -- two on back-to-back aces by Grace Doolittle -- and eventually won the set -- and the Lady Pointers never trailed en route to a victory in the third game. West, however, had a 20-15 lead after an Emerson Traweek kill in the fourth game. Van Buren, however, closed out the match with a 10-2 run. Bailey Brooks had three of her 11 kills during the Lady Pointers' outburst, including the kill that ended the match, while Alexandra Dupree had a team-high 15 kills and Madalyn Doolittle added 10. "We talked about composure again," Reeves said. "I told the girls they had been playing well all night and to keep playing like they had been playing. It will turn the corner, so keep playing with composure." West (10-10), which lost its share of first place in the league standings, was still missing starters Kerryann Ptacek and Paddi Gudivada after having four starters out during a weekend tournament in Springfield, Mo. Lady Wolverines coach Julie Rowan said she is hopeful those two will return for Thursday's match at Bentonville High. Kortney Puckett, one of the starters who returned to the lineup, led the Lady Wolverines with 12 kills and added three total blocks, followed by Emerson Traweek with nine. "Kerryann is one of our outside hitters and plays all the way around," West coach Julie Rowan said. "That position is a little bit of a struggle right now. Jayden Lindsey is stepping in and doing a good job, but it's just taking our middle to the outside. "We just got outplayed. It's not because of who we are lacking. We started getting blocked some, and our hitters didn't handle that. Several of our hitters had a ton of errors, but our serving -- that will be our number one focus in practice."

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Bentonville West High School Athletics

VAN BUREN KNOCKS OFF WEST

HENRY APPLE

Arkansas Democrat | 9/19/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: JT Wampler