RUSSELLVILLE — The Bryant Lady Hornets freshman team struggled early but made it into the Silver bracket of a volleyball tournament at Russellville High School. They won their way to the finals of the bracket before losing to Conway White.
In pool play, Bryant split with Vilonia, 25-16, 22-25 and Trinity, 25-20, 21-25 but lost to North Little Rock, 12-25, 15-25.
In bracket play, Bryant defeated Maumelle, 25-9, 25-12 and Lake Hamilton, 25-15, 25-15 before absorbing a 20-25, 23-25 loss to Conway White.
“We struggled with the early games but improved as the day progressed,” said Bryant coach Lawrence Jefferson. “We placed third in our pool barely by points. We played well against Maumelle and Lake Hamilton to make it to the finals of the Silver bracket.
“I’m proud of the team for their effort and success to make it to the finals of the bracket,” he commented. “It takes a lot of perseverance to play in these all-day tournaments and make it to the finals of the bracket. Conway White played well and made some big plays down the stretch. We keep on improving daily and working hard every practice.”
In the match with Conway, Grace Sams had three kills while Truli Bates and Casey Welch came up with two apiece. Bates also had three blocks. Grace Camferdam, Ivory Russ and Erin Thompson each had a kill.
Meredith Medford served up two aces while Sams, Lexi Brown and Ashley Davis had one apiece. Medford and Brown each had four assists as well.
Against Lake Hamilton, Russ finished with three kills. Cali Rogers, Brooke Abney, Camferdam and Bates had two each. Sams and Camille Rawls produced one apiece.
Brown finished with seven assists. Medford had four. Davis and Sams each had two aces while Medford and Brown had one apiece. Sams also had nine digs. Kiarra Beard eight and Thompson seven.
Sams and Abney each had three kills against Muamelle. Graci Carter and Bates contributed two apiece with Russ, Welch, Brown and Gracie Seyffert came through with one each.
Brown had eight assists and three aces. Medford, Sams and Seyffert contributed three aces as well. Davis, Sophie Kennedy, Sarah Loness, Cora Edwards, Thompson and Beard had one apiece, giving Bryant 18 aces in the match.
Seyffert and Edwards also had seven digs each.
Against Vilonia, Thompson served up three aces to go with two each from Brown and Sams. Kennedy also produced one.
At the net, Sams had three kills to lead the team. Russ added two while Camferdam, Bates, Abney, Edwards and Thompson each came up with one.
Beard had 12 digs, Brown nine with Thompson and Sams digging up seven apiece.
The match with Trinity included aces from Beard, Seyffert, Kennedy, Brown and Welch. Seyffert also had 10 digs.
Kills were turned in by Kennedy, Welch, Medford, Sams and Kenedy Kuchinski. Sams and Kuchinski had two each.
Beard and Thompson each had a service ace against North Little Rock. Sams had two kills and Camferdam one. Bates came up with three solo blocks and Russ had one.
Brown and Sams led the team with six digs apiece. Beard and Thompson added four each.
The Lady Hornets are scheduled to play against Cabot Red at home on Monday.
