The Bryant Lady Hornets hosted a new member of the 7A-Central Conference for their first league match on Thursday night. Unfortunately, they never quite found their stride against the Fort Smith Northside Lady Bears and wound up absorbing a 22-25, 17-25, 19-25 setback.
In a junior varsity match, the Lady Hornets got the best of the visitors, 25-16, 25-22.
“Our JV did a great job tonight pulling out a great win in their game,” said Lady Hornets coach Beth Solomon. “We were very excited going into the varsity match and our warm up looked really good.
“Something happened during the first set that we just couldn’t seem to overcome,” she related. “The team that played tonight looked like the same team that played Monday night against Benton. We’re not sure exactly what has happened this week but we are headed to the drawing board to get it fixed before our game on Tuesday. For some reason we aren’t jiving on the court like we should.”
Tuesday, the Lady Hornets travel to play another league match with the Mount St. Mary Bells in Little Rock.
The Lady Bears made it tough for the Lady Hornets at the net. Bryant had 20 hitting errors. Raven Loveless finished with eight kills with a block. Lylah Washington produced six kills and a block while Sarah Clemmons finished with five kills and three blocks.
In addition, Brittney Warner had four kills, Ashlyn Lee two and Alex Dillard one. Lee had a block and 17 assists.
At the service line, Clemmons had three aces. Lee had two while Macey Loudon, Reagan Blend, Reagan Dabbs and Riley Hill each had one.
In the JV match, Kristin Boyle led the attack with eight kills. Faith Stone finished with four as Aly Bowers and Imanii Jones pitched in with two apiece.
Lindsey Maxwell had 12 assists. At the service line, Madi Draper produced a team-high three aces. Stone and Cassie Ray added two each. Loudon and Emily Hall finished with one apiece. Draper and Ray were both 9 of 10 on their service attempts.
Ray led the way with five digs. Loudon came up with three. Maxwell, Hall and Bowers picked up two each.
