Bryant girls shake off the cobwebs, overwhelm Lady Bears
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).
FORT SMITH — It had been over 10 days since the Bryant Lady Hornets competed with another team. The tournament in Conway they were set to play in over the weekend was washed out.
So, it took a few minutes for them to get their bearings after the long trip to Fort Smith to play the Fort Smith Northside Lady Bears on Tuesday night.
“We started out slow, just trying to get ourselves together a little bit,” said Bryant coach Nicole Inman. “We’re still trying to figure out what it is we’re trying to accomplish and how we’re going to try to do it.”
But once they scored at the 33-minute mark in the first half when Alyssa Fason assisted on a goal by Ashton Inman.
It stayed 1-0 until there was 13:51 left in the half. Grace Carmack knocked it in off a feed from Ashton Inman.
“Grace was getting in the game for Alyssa a little bit,” noted Coach Inman.
So, it was 2-0 at the half. In the second half, the Lady Hornets hit their stride. At 31:41, Abbey Inman had a corner kick into the middle and Mary Catherine Selig headed it in to make it 3-0.
About four minutes later, off a corner, the ball got popped out to the top of the box where Abbey Inman controlled it and drilled a goal.
With 18:25 to go, Ashlyn Thompson got the assist on Carmack’s second goal.
To cap off the romp, Rachel Buck scored on a turnover by Northside with 30 seconds left.
“We had the opportunity tonight to get a lot of the girls — everybody that came, played,” Coach Inman said. “We had 23 girls that got to be on the field, which is good. It gives us an opportunity to begin developing steps on the field.
“But we really had our stronger players run Northside down a lot and possess the ball,” she added. “So, it was a good start for us.”
