FHS volleyball wins handily at Heritage
Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008
ROGERS - It didn't matter that Fayetteville faced a new team. Volleyball coach Jessica Phelan still wanted to open up the 7 A-West Conference schedule with a win and she wasn't disappointed.
Fayetteville (6-3, 1-0 in 7 A-West ) swept Rogers Heritage (0-3, 0-1 ) 25-13, 25-14, 25-15 on Thursday night.
"It is nice to open the conference with a win," said Phelan. "We had a pretty good night offensively. We were able to pass pretty well and limit our serving errors."
It was matchup between teams in different positions. Fayetteville is coming off a season that took them to the state finals and has a host of talented seniors. On the other side of the net, the first-year Heritage program is getting off the ground and barely has enough players for a match.
"We were able to get a win against a scrappy Heritage team," Phelan said. "They are a new program that is going to continue to develop over the course of this season."
The Lady Bulldogs had considerably more height than the Lady War Eagles. Nine of Fayetteville's 14 players are 5-foot-8 or taller. Heritage has three players 5- foot-8 or taller.
Fayetteville substituted players at will while Heritage's six starters played every point.
Fayetteville junior Haley Martin had a game-high 11 kills. Teammate Cassie Clarke had 10 assists and Cathryne Klusmeir had 10 digs.
"The girls knew they had a battle today," said Heritage head coach Sarah Miser. "I'm actually pretty proud of the girls. They worked pretty hard. At the beginning of games we battled well and it was in the middle where we lost it. We've got to learn to keep that focus and determination."
Sophomore Rachael Crum had a game-high 17 digs for the War Eagles and sophomore Shelby White had a team-high nine kills.
Heritage will go on the road Saturday and play in the Branson Invitational in Missouri on Saturday. Miser said the invitational will be an opportunity to get her players a lot of touches and should be "a confidence booster."
Fayetteville will also be in Missouri on Saturday for the Show-Me Showdown in West Plains.
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