Lady Hornets run unprecedented win streak to five with comeback over Cabot
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).
By Rob Patrick
Photos by Rick Nation
Something’s brewing with this season’s Bryant Lady Hornets volleyball team and the fans and students at Bryant High School are beginning to catch on.
With a boisterous group of student supporters and parents, the Lady Hornets came from behind to win their fifth consecutive 7A/6A-Central Conference match, 3-2, over the Cabot Lady Panthers at the Hornets Nest. The games went 22-25, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22, 15-5.[more]
The Lady Hornets junior varsity also prevailed, 25-13, 25-12.
Five wins in a row may be a record for the program. Certainly, head coach Beth Solomon asserted, it’s the longest winning streak in the six years she’s been at Bryant as an assistant or head coach.
With the win, the Lady Hornets, now 8-5 overall and 7-3 in conference play, retained at least a share of second place in the league behind only Conway, the undefeated leader. A second-place finish in the league would earn the Lady Hornets a first-round bye at the Class 7A State Tournament in Bentonville.
For a while, though, it looked like the winning streak was in trouble. Cabot had surged at the end to win the third game of the match and stood a game away from winning. But during the brief break between the third and fourth game, Solomon made the unusual move of taking her team to the locker room.
“I needed to get onto them in a way I couldn’t out here,” she allowed after the match. “I basically told them, the match should’ve been over in three. They looked like a totally different team tonight, nothing like we’ve been playing.
“I’m proud of them for pulling it out,” she acknowledged. “The fifth game was the way every other game should’ve looked. We actually played our game the fifth game.”
Even after the talk, the Lady Hornets fell behind early in the fourth game and, though they never allowed the Lady Panthers to make a big run, they couldn’t seem to ever get the lead either.
After trailing 10-5, they rallied to within 11-10 with a run that featured kills by Maggie Hart and McKenzie Rice and a dink by Hannah Rice. But the Lady Hornets just couldn’t get over the hump. They were within 14-13 but not much later, they trailed 17-13 and Solomon was calling a timeout.
Actually, like most of the timeouts taken by either coach (except right at the end of a game), things changed after the break. Bryant rallied to tie at 17 with Courtney Davidson stepping up with a pair of kills. But, after a long volley for the next point, Cabot regained the advantage.
It was tied at 19 and 20 before, finally, with the game tied at 21 off a kill by Hart, who took over service at that point, a power spike by Brianna White snapped the tie in Bryant’s favor. It was the Lady Hornets’ first lead in the game since it was 4-3.
Cabot, gamely tied it when a Bryant block attempt fell out. But when Amber Cope knocked down the next point in Bryant’s favor, the Lady Hornets were ahead to stay. With McKenzie Rice serving, they quickly finished it out on kills by Davidson and White.
With the match tied 2-2, the Lady Hornets rode the momentum and emotion into the tiebreaker. They scored the first two points. Cabot got on the board with a hitting error in Bryant but then the Lady Hornets broke serve and, with McKenzie Rice serving again — and contributing two aces — they reeled off nine straight points with an overwhelming run.
The 11-1 lead was trimmed to 13-5 by Cabot before Hannah Rice’s got a hit to go down to break serve then a long hit out by the Lady Panthers ended it.
“There was energy in the gym,” Solomon said. “The fans were getting a little more involved and I think that made a huge difference. It’s hard to play in a quiet gym. If we keep doing well, maybe we’ll get some more to come out.”
To that end, the next Bryant home game should be a particularly good one for fans. It will be Tuesday, Oct. 12, and they’ll just happen to be taking on the league-leading Lady Wampus Cats. With a win at Russellville on Thursday — and the Lady Hornets have been very good on the road this season — they would have a six-game winning streak on the line that night.
McKenzie Rice (34 of 43 attacks) and White (21 of 31) led the Lady Hornets with 12 kills each. Davidson (29 of 35) added 11. Hannah Rice set them up with 28 assists. White also had three solo blocks and, on one occasion, made a spectacular play when she came up with a block, recovered in just seconds and pounded home a spike for a kill.
Davidson, Hart and Lauren Reed were each 100 percent on serves. Reed got all 18 of hers in, Davidson 16 and Hart 15.
Reed also came up with 18 digs.
“We were just off tonight,” Solomon said. “We just weren’t consistent at all tonight until that last game.”
Winning at home for the second time in a row was also an encouraging sign. Prior to a win over Little Rock Central last week at home, the Lady Hornets had lost four of five home matches.
“I don’t know,” Solomon wondered. “You would think that playing away would be harder than playing at home but we are an away team.”
In the first game, Cabot took an early lead and held on most of the way. Bryant trailed 10-16 when Solomon took her first timeout. And, as mentioned, the timeout helped. The Lady Hornets pushed back and eventually tied the match at 18 with Taylor West, Sydney Manley and Reed serving.
But a Cabot timeout had the same effect. The Lady Panthers came out after the respite and pushed the lead out to 24-19 on the way to taking the game.
In the second game, Bryant gained the upper hand after it was tied at 3. The Lady Hornets eventually led 12-6 then, later, 17-12. Again, a timeout changed the dynamic, however. Cabot responded with a 7-1 run to take a 19-18 lead.
After a timeout by Solomon, the Lady Hornets surged, sparked by a block from Hart that scored and kills by McKenzie Rice and Cope.
The third game of the match was close throughout. The largest edge was Cabot’s at 10-5 but the game was tied at 12 then six times after that. The last knot was at 21. The Lady Hornets were caught on the net as Cabot picked up the tie-snapping point. The Lady Panthers held on, resulting in the Lady Hornets’ trip to the locker room.
In the JV match, Bryant never trailed by more than the 6-3 deficit that came early in the first game. The Lady Hornets were down 9-7 then scored 10 straight points, mostly with Britten Hays serving. Brooke Howell and Hays each had kills during the run. Later, Howell served up a pair of aces to extend the lead to 21-10.
In the second game, Cabot scored the first two points but once Bryant tied it 2-2, the Lady Panthers never led the rest of the way.
It was tied at 10 but, with Kaylon Wilson serving, the Lady Hornets went on an 11-0 run that including kills by Howell, Hays and Alex Boone.
“The girls played great tonight,” Solomon said. “We tried a new rotation with Kaylon playing libero for our outside hitters, Alex Boone and Haley Sherrill, who we moved to the outside tonight. The new rotation seems to be very positive and we’ll be sticking with it.”
Wilson wound up 12 of 12 on her serves. She also matched Hays for a team-high nine digs. West finished with 14 assists as Alyssa Anderson picked up eight kills, Boone and Howell five each. Anderson also contributed a block.
