Lady Hornets roll to tourney title at Fort Smith
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FORT SMITH — Allowing just one goal in three matches, the Bryant Lady Hornets captured the championship of a quality, season-opening tournament in Fort Smith over the weekend.
Bryant won its first two contests, 4-0, over Van Buren on Friday then Fort Smith Southside on Saturday afternoon. In the championship game, they rallied from a 1-0 deficit early to win the title 3-1.
“Overall, I felt the girls played well for it being the beginning of the season,” said Lady Hornets coach Julie Long. “They are working hard and still trying to find their niche in certain places.
“Our defense and keepers both came up big with two shutouts,” she acknowledged. “That is a goal the girls have set to hold on to shutouts if we get a lead. I was pleased with the ball movement in our first two games. I thought the third game could have been played with a little more composure but, for now, I’ll take the fact that, after they got scored on, they responded well and worked hard to get the goal back.
“I felt all the girls played well, and every one of them made a contribution to each win,” the coach concluded.
In the title game, Long said she felt her team came out “very sluggish” early in the match.
“Har-Ber had a nice finish off a short corner played in,” she said of the opening goal of the Lady Wildcats. “The girls responded excellently to the wake-up call and scored within the next minute.”
Caroline Campbell got the goal off a through ball by Anna Lowery. And, within two minutes after that, they Lady Hornets took the lead when Rori Whittaker scored off a pass from Campbell.
The clincher came with about 13 minutes left in the contest. Jacie McMahan assisted on Campbell’s second goal.
Earlier on Saturday against Southside, McMahan broke the ice with a goal off a cross from Tori Rose. Campbell then finished with the hat-trick, scoring three times off three McMahan assists. The first of those trio of goals came before the half, making it 2-0 at the break.
Against Van Buren, four different Bryant players had goals including Campbell, who got a shot in before the match was three minutes in. Kara Moser got the assist off a cross.
The second goal came on a free kick that Rose knocked through.
Lowery added her first goal of the season off a through ball from Allison Hughes then McMahan scored on a header set up by a cross sent in by Kara Taylor.
The Lady Hornets were scheduled to take on Conway on Tuesday, March 11, but the match was postponed. It may be rescheduled. So Bryant’s next action will come in another tournament in northwest Arkansas, hosted by Bentonville this Friday and Saturday.
It’ll include a couple of rematches for the Lady Hornets including another game against Har-Ber. In addition, they’ll take on Mount St. Mary Academy of Little Rock, the team that knocked them out of the 2013 Class 7A State Tournament in a hotly-contested semifinal game. Bryant will also take on defending State champion Bentonville, which defeated Mount in the State title game last year.
