LITTLE ROCK — The Bryant Lady Hornets were a win away from capturing their 7A/6A-Central Conference opener in a sweep of the Central Lady Tigers on Thursday night. But the host team came storming back to win games three and four, forcing a winner-take-all fifth game in which Bryant gained the upper hand early and forged a victory after all.
“I’m proud that the girls fought hard in game five and pulled it out,” stated Lady Hornets head coach Beth Solomon. “The girls on the bench would not let the gym get quiet, which really helped in the last game.
“We told the girls after the Benton game on Tuesday night that we’ve got to ride the momentum when it goes our way, that we’ve got to get up and stay up,” she added. “They definitely improved on that tonight.”
Brianna White was 11 of 15 on her attacks with eight kills. She also had two solo blocks and assisted on three others. Hannah Rice was 25 of 28 on serves with three aces. She also led the team with 20 assists and 16 digs. Lauren Reed contributed 11 digs.
“It was a good start to conference,” declared Solomon. “The girls fought for their win tonight.
“Central is a lot better than they were last year,” the coach observed. “They have several good servers and our serve-receive seemed to suffer because of it.”
The final scores were 25-23, 25-17, 21-25, 22-25, 15-9.
“I don’t think the girls were quite as ready to play as they should have been,” Solomon said. “We came out the first game and were dragging a little. But we were able to pull out the win. We rode the momentum off of the first game win to start off game two.”
The Lady Hornets jumped out to a 6-0 lead when Central called its first timeout.
“I told the girls that, since they were up by six, that they had to win by at least that much, which they did.
“In games three and four, we let down,” Solomon related. “This is the inconsistency that we’re still working on. We’ll get there.”
The Lady Hornets will go for their second league victory at home on Tuesday, Sept. 7, against Mount St. Mary Academy, one of the conference team they defeated in pool play of the Little Rock Spikefest last Saturday.
In Thursday’s junior varsity game, Bryant swept, 25-21, 25-18. Alex Boone was 11 for 11 on attacks with six kills. She also had five digs, as did Kaylon Wilson. Taylor West contributed 16 of 17 good serves with three aces to go with her 14 assists. Alyssa Anderson contributed four blocks.