Lady Hornets ride defense, Gartrell’s goal to win over Texarkana
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 continue posting 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).
By Aaron Shuttleworth
This next week in practice the Bryant Lady Hornets are going to hear the word “finish” a lot. At the end of the soccer game against the Texarkana Lady Razorbacks on Thursday night at Bryant Stadium, the Lady Hornets took 12 shots on the goal and not one went in.
The lone goal of the night came with 33:11 left in the game from Shelby Gartrell.
“She’s a worker,” said Lady Hornets Coach Julie Long. “But we need to work on our finishing of games, that’s our number one focus.”[more]
There were a total of 38 shots on the Lady Razorbacks’ goal.
When asked what she told her team during halftime, Coach Long said, “Keep high pressure on the keeper.”
Defensively, the Lady Hornets did a great job. At times during the game, Bryant keeper Kaitlyn Miller did not even have to be there. She had three saves and one was from a free kick at 15 yards out. When the ball did cross midfield the defenders did a good job at clearing the ball out.
With three starters still out, the Lady Hornets are going to have to keep up the intensity as they get ready to face Little Rock Central on Thursday, March 4, in the opening 7A-Central Conference game. Just as the varsity boys, they are trying to get to the Northwest Arkansas Invitational March 5-6 at 3-0. But before they can look towards that, they need to take care of the Central Lady Tigers.
So the word that will be on the dry erase board in the locker room all week will be “FINISH”.
