The Bryant Lady Hornets, playing in their first State championship match, will try to earn their first Class 7A title by knocking off the defending champion Bentonville Lady Tigers on Saturday morning at 10.
It will be the second time this season that the two teams have squared off. In a tournament in Bentonville on March 14, they battled to a scoreless tie.
The question on Saturday may be, which team has improved the most since then.
Now, there’s no doubt that the West Conference, which Bentonville won, is tougher competition than the Lady Hornets faced in the South but Bryant head coach Julie Long sprinkled her schedule with tough non-conference opponents including 7A semifinalists Mount St. Mary Academy and Little Rock Central, and a couple of teams that reached the quarterfinals at State, Cabot and Springdale Har-Ber.
Though they tied Mount 0-0 at Bentonville, later in the season, they pinned a 6-0 loss on the Belles. Bryant beat Central 4-0 during the regular season and 2-0 in the semifinals on Saturday. Their win over Cabot was 1-0 and their victory over Har-Ber was 2-1.
In fact, the goal that Har-Ber scored was one of just five Bryant gave up all season. The Lady Hornets are 21-0-2 going into Saturday’s match.
Last season, Bentonville defeated Mount St. Mary, 2-1, to win the championship.
To get to the final this year, the Lady Tigers ousted Cabot, 3-0, and Mount, 2-1.
Along with the semifinal win over Central, the Lady Hornets knocked out Rogers, 1-0.
Long has pointed to her team’s depth as a big factor in its success this season and it will be important on Saturday because the Lady Hornets will be without a starter who was issued a red card in the semifinal match with Central.
There’s not doubt that Bentonville, the largest school in the state, has depth as well.
CLASS 7A STATE SOCCER TOURNAMENT
At Bentonville
Girls
Thursday, May 15
Game 1 — Springdale Har-Ber (West 4) 1, Conway (Central 5) 0
Game 2 — Cabot (Central 3) 4, Rogers Heritage (West 6) 3
Game 3 — Rogers (West 5) 2, North Little Rock (Central 4) 0
Game 4 — Fayetteville (West 3) 3, Fort Smith Southside (Central 6) 0
Friday, May 16
Game 5 — Mount St. Mary (Central 1) def. Springdale Har-Ber
Game 6 — Bentonville (West 2) 3, Cabot 0
Game 7 — Bryant (West 1) 1, Rogers 0
Game 8 — Little Rock Central (Central 2) 2, Fayetteville 1
Saturday, May 17
Game 9 — Bentonville 2, Mount St. Mary 1
Game 10 — Bryant 2, Little Rock Central 0
Championship
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
Saturday, May 24
Game 11 — Bryant vs. Bentonville, 10 a.m.
