nwanews.com

BENTONVILLE - Whatever the Bentonville Lady Tigers need from April Miller on the soccer field, it's likely the junior midfielder can come through.

Already an All-State player and the 7A-West Conference's Overall MVP, Miller was awarded another postseason honor Tuesday as Gatorade named her its the 2008-09 Arkansas Girls' Soccer Player of the Year.

Miller is the second Lady Tiger to receive the award and the fourth girls' soccer player from Benton County in the last five years.

Bentonville's Kelly O'Connor won the award in 2005-06 while Rogers' Samantha Bolton (2004-05) and Alyvia Rogers (2006-07) were also honored.

O'Connor and Bolton are now playing at the University of Arkansas

and Rogers is at Tulsa. Miller said it feels good to be mentioned in the same breath with those former standouts.

"They were all really good soccer players. I just feel honored to be included," Miller said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime award. Not a lot of people get it. It feels good to get it."

Miller has played on the varsity level since she was a freshman and has helped the Lady Tigers appear in the Class 7A state finals in each of the last three years.

Bentonville won two of those games, including Friday's 2-0 victory against Fayetteville at Razorback Field. Miller had two cornerkicks that led to both Lady Tiger goals.

"We were all striving to win this year," Miller said. "We just all knew if we got together and played our best and put everything we had on the field that we could win it. I feel like we played our hardest, that we were in it to win it and it paid off."

On the season Miller totaled 19 goals and 13 assists.

"When I needed (Miller) to sit back and defend or tighten up the midfield, she can do it," said Bentonville coach Kris Henry. "If I need her to press forward, she figures out where it is she needs to go and where the ball needs to go."

Henry said Miller (5-foot-8) gives the team a strong, physical presence on the field and a "knowledge of the game that she has makes her that much more dangerous of a player."

"She just has that savvyness about her that's developed over the years," Henry said. "It doesn't matter how hard opponents defender or how they mark her in the game, she still finds a way. Whatever I ask her to do she does."

Miller scored 11 goals as a freshman and played a large role in getting Bentonville to the 2007 state finals, where the Lady Tigers defeated Little Rock Central 1-0 to win the school's first state title.

In the state semifinals just days before that win, Miller had two goals and the game-winning assist to Kelly O'Connor's golden goal in a 3-2 win against Mount St. Mary in double overtime.

"I can still see the ball she gave to Kelly O'Connor in the overtime game against Mount St. Mary," Henry said. "To me that is so her. She just nailed it."

As a sophomore, Miller became more involved in the team's scoring with 19 goals and Bentonville went 24-2-1 and finished state runner-up to Mount St. Mary.

The junior has scored 49 career goals at BHS with another year to go.