Lady Hornets perform in the clutch to rally past North Little Rock
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 continueposting 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).
If the Bryant Lady Hornets look back on their 2009 volleyball season, it may be they’ll point to Thursday, Sept. 24, as a turning point.
They were just a few points away from suffering their fourth disheartening loss in a row. In fact, they were in that predicament three times. But in each instance, they found a way to rally and the result was a dramatic victory over the North Little Rock Lady Charging Wildcats, 21-25, 18-25, 25-23, 29-27, 16-14.
Head coach Beth Solomon stated, “The girls probably played the best match they’ve played.”
The win improved the Lady Hornets to 3-4 over the first half of the 7A-Central Conference schedule, 3-6 overall going into a trip to Jonesboro on Saturday for the annual Arkansas State Playday.
The Bryant JV took their match to the wire as well but North Little Rock prevailed at the end, 28-26, 24-26, 15-13.
The two teams visit Little Rock Central on Tuesday, Sept. 29, in a return to conference play.[more]
“All of the girls stepped up their game,” declared Lady Hornets head coach Beth Solomon. “They finally regained their confidence, which they had lost, and proved to themselves that they could do it. They could play hard and pull out the win.
“In the fourth game, we were up 24-22 and had a girl serve out of rotation,” she recounted. “We ran out of subs. And, yet, the girls still fought hard for the win. We had front row players playing back row and back row players playing front row. That’s how bad the girls wanted to win. It’s finally what we’ve been looking for all along.”
Senior Kayla Davidson led the way with a whopping 21 kills and nine blocks. Jordan Armstrong contributed 44 assists and Lauren Reed contributed 19 digs.
“We didn’t have a big server,” Solomon mentioned. “Jordan and Kayla led in aces with one each. (North Little Rock ) was a very good serve-receive team. Peyton Thacker did step in for us as a server and didn’t miss a serve.
“The match was amazing,” Solomon added. “We had some girls finally step up into the leadership role. Kayla had a great game and it seemed to rub off on the rest of the team. She was a true leader both on and off the court.”
In the hotly contested JV match, the Lady Hornets fell 26-28, 26-24, 13-15.
Maggie Hart contributed seven assists and four blocks. Lana Naumann had 14 assists and Taylor West served up four aces. Heather Light sparked the defense with 10 digs.
