Lady Hornets outlast Lakeside for first victory
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
The Bryant Lady Hornets put together a successful debut for their season Tuesday night at Bryant High School gym, defeating the Hot Springs Lakeside Lady Rams in four sets, 25-20, 25-13, 23-25, 25-21.
Lakeside won the junior varsity match, 25-21, 25-21.
“We had a great home opener tonight,” declared Bryant head coach Beth Solomon. “The varsity came out playing really well. We did some really good things.
“I was very happy with how we played and starting out our season with a W is always a plus,” she added. “One key thing that helped us was our serve receive. We’ve been working on serve receive a lot and converting the first ball into a kill. The girls did a good job of that tonight, especially in sets one and two. We are on our way to becoming a more consistent team.”
The Lady Hornets were good on 94 percent of their serves with just five errors. Sarah Clemmons contributed five aces. Reagan Blend contributed three while Ashlyn Lee and Riley Hill each served up a pair of aces.
Bryant also combined on 40 kills including 11 by junior Raven Loveless. Brittney Warner and Lylah Washington each had eight while Clemmons and Lee added five apiece. Alex Dillard had three.
Lee had 26 assists and four digs in the match. Hill contributed two digs and Clemmons came up with three blocks.
“We won sets one and two and looked great,” Solomon stated. “In set three, you could definitely see the fatigue setting in from the heat and we ended up losing that set. The girls regrouped and, even though we had some ups and downs in set four, they were able to pull out and fight for the win.”
In the JV match, Faith Stone led the way with six kills while Emily Hall served up four aces. Cassie Ray had seven digs and Lindsey Maxwell set for 13 assists. Macey Loudon added four digs.
In addition, Madi Draper came through with three aces from the service line. Aly Bowers, Beatriz Hernandez and Imanii Jones pitched in with three kills apiece.
“Our JV got things going for us tonight and did some really good things,” Solomon said. “They came out fighting and, despite a lull in set two where we gave up 12 points, they fought all the way to the end of the game.”
Bryant travels to Fountain Lake on Thursday.
“We’ve stressed to the girls how important it is to build from where we finished tonight,” Solomon related.
