HIGHLAND — The undefeated Brighton Bengals roared into Highland to take on the Lone Peak volleyball team and clawed their way to a three-game victory, 25-17, 25-21, 25-21.

Though both teams are loaded with talent, the Bengals have much more experience and showed it on the court as they weathered the ups and downs with the composure of a team that's been together for years.

"It's an experienced team. They've been playing together for a while for me, but in my eyes I didn't think we were all that consistent tonight. We were just more consistent than they were," said Brighton coach Jeremiah Larsen of his team that's the favorite to take the 5A state title this season.

Team leaders Cassandra Ricketts and Krista Kelly paced the Bengals with 20 kills a piece.

"They played really well," he said of his seniors, who both tower over 6 feet in height.

Both the Bengals and the Knights played through runs, but as Larsen said, Brighton just had more of them.

Game 1 was a comedy of errors for the Knights as they gave up 14 points off miscues to only six for the Bengals. Seven service errors and seven hitting errors made it difficult for Lone Peak to put up much of a fight as they lost by eight points and gave up game point on one of those hitting errors.

The Knights came back in Game 2 and put a scare into the Bengals as they tied it up for the sixth time at 19-19 before Brighton made one last run to finish it off. Yet another error by the Knights gave the Bengals the finishing touch to the second game and left Lone Peak in quite a hole.

Brighton wasn't only counting on their two big guns throughout the match, however, as sophomore Aurie Robinson hit her way to a perfect game, downing nine kills in nine attempts.

"She kind of sneaks up on you, doesn't she? She had a really nice game for us," said Larsen.

The Bengals did a little sneaking of their own in Game 3 as they slipped out to a 21-12 lead before the Knights seemed to notice what hit them.

Lone Peak's young squad then went on the attack, scoring seven of the next eight points to give the game a respectable 22-19 score. Brighton then came out of its brief slumber to pour in three of the final five points with a back row kill by Kelly finishing the Knights off at match point.

Christie Carpenter led Lone Peak with 16 kills in the contest, followed by sophomore Aubrey Moena's six kills.

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E-mail: jolsen@desnews.com