CONWAY — With first place in the 7A/6A-Central Conference on the line, the Conway Lady Wampus Cats[more] scored in the first 30 seconds and made it hold up for a 1-0 win over the Bryant Lady Hornets.
The loss stopped Bryant’s six-game winning streak dating back to a 2-0 loss to Conway at a tournament in Bentonville on March 10. The Lady Hornets are now 10-3 overall and 4-1 in league play with another shot at the Lady Cats in Bryant coming up on May 1. Bryant’s last win over Conway was April 13, 2006.
“I have never been more proud to coach the Lady Hornets than I was after the game last night,” stated Bryant head coach Julie Long on Saturday morning. “My girls played very hard and with a lot of heart.
“The game was a big let down after a day of anticipation,” she noted. “After that first goal, the girls only gave up a few scoring opportunity the rest of the game. We hit the cross bar three times and they played hard until the very end which says a lot for a team when you get scored on that quickly.
“We fought all the way until the last seconds,” the coach emphasized. “We even had a goal scoring opportunity in the last minute. The girls worked so hard and I'm so proud of their efforts. However, with that being said, these girls didn't take the loss lightly. I've never coached a more competitive group of girls who want it as bad as this group does. They were extremely disappointed with the outcome but took some good things from the game.”
This Tuesday, the Lady Hornets return to action at home against Cabot, a team they are now tied with for second place in the conference.
“We got beat by a good Conway team and we now have some adjustments we need to make before facing Cabot,” Long said. “I think the game was a learning experience and something to build on. I would like to give praise to every player, because there wasn't a person on the field who didn't give everything they had.”
