Bryant girls nail down top seed with 6-0 win over Pointerettes
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this time of COVID-19, with no sports action, BryantDaily.com will be 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).
Bouncing back from their first conference loss, the Bryant Lady Hornets unleashed a barrage of shots on goal against the Van Buren Pointerettes Tuesday night at Bryant Stadium. The result was a 6-0 romp in which Britney Sahlmann had a hat trick and Caroline Campbell scored twice.
For the match, Bryant’s attack produced a whopping 35 shots.
The victory clinched the Lady Hornets’ No. 1 seed from the Central Conference to the Class 7A State Tournament, which they will host starting Thursday, May 14. With a first-round bye, Bryant will open at noon on Friday, May 15, against the winning of a Thursday match between the 4 seed from the West and the 3 seed from the East.
On Friday, the Lady Hornets had suffered their first league loss, 1-0, at Conway. It was just their second setback of the season. Tuesday’s win improved their overall mark to 18-2. They’re 7-1 in the 7A/6A-Central Conference overall, 5-1 against 7A league rivals.
Bryant scored three goals in each half. Near the midway point of the first half, Campbell found the range off an assist from Hadley Dickinson. At the 13:27 mark, Campbell picked up the first of two assists, feeding Ashley Sparks who made it 2-0.
Sahlmann’s first goal came on a cross from Kendall Selig at 10:47.
“Before that game we set a goal to work hard on two things: Having more accurate passes and talking more on the field to each other,” said Lady Hornets head coach Julie Long. “The girls did well on their passing. We struggled finding the back of the net and that was frustrating.
“However, I think we just need to take a deep breath and refocus on getting things right,” she added. “They played hard though and worked well together.”
In the second half, Sahlmann nailed her second goal on a header off another cross by Selig with 39:18 left in the game. Her third came just less than 10 minutes later with Campbell providing the assist.
Two minutes after that, Campbell was on the receiving end of the feed, this time from Dickinson, and drilled the final goal of the contest.
“We are always focusing on looking ahead to make better things happen,” the coach concluded. “So hopefully we can get some recovery this week and get refocused.”
The Lady Hornets will celebrate Senior Night this Friday when they host Greenwood in their regular-season finale.
