Lady Hornets top Lady Cobras, get set for Spikefest, Salt Bowl week showdown
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FOUNTAIN LAKE — The inexperienced Bryant Lady Hornets volleyball team took another step forward in their development Thursday night and got a win to boot. Bryant got past the Fountain Lake Lady Cobras, 25-21, 25-23, 21-25, 25-22.
In a junior varsity match, Bryant won the first game 25-14 but Fountain Lake fought back to win the match, 15-25, 12-15.
The Lady Hornets play in the annual Little Rock Spikefest on Saturday, taking on Batesville at 9 a.m., Magnolia at 11 a.m., and Central Arkansas Christian at 1 p.m.
“The varsity started off a little bumpy but pulled it together,” said Bryant head coach Beth Solomon regarding Thursday’s win. “We had a lot of really good highs that we would finish up with some lulls. We would get up by 6, 7, 8 points and then we would turn around and give up 5 points in a row.
“That’s something that we’ve been really trying to emphasize with the girls,” she continued, “that we we are up and on a run that we keep it going and not get ‘comfortable’ with our lead; that we just need to keep pushing.”
Sarah Clemmons led the attack with 16 kills. Raven Loveless had 12 and Brittney Warner six. Lylah Washington added five, Alex Dillard three and Reagan Dabbs two. Reagan Blend and Ashlyn Lee had one each.
Lee finished with 30 assists. At the serving line, the Lady Hornets were good on 88 percent of their attempts with 14 aces. Clemmons had four, Dabbs and Kyla Baker three each. Warner picked up two with Blend and Lee contributing one apiece.
“The girls did a very good job spot serving to where I told them to,” Solomon said. “We missed more serves because of their aggressiveness on their serves. We have been really hitting serving hard and emphasizing the importance of not missing serves.
Looking ahead, the coach said, “We’re going to look at our rotations and the number of points we give up each rotation (Friday). Saturday will be a good day for us to correct our weakest rotations on the court and get ready to kick off Salt Bowl week when we play Benton on Monday night.”
In the JV match, Faith Stone had four kills, a block and four aces. Beatriz Hernandez led the team with five kills. Imanii Jones added three and Kristin Boyle two. Lindsey Maxwell had 12 assists as well as a kill and two aces. Macey Loudon and Aly Bowers scored with a kill apiece.
Loudon, Madi Draper and Emily Hall each served up an ace. Cassie Ray led the team with 11 digs. Draper had five and Loudon three.
“The JV started off the night looking very good, much better than last week,” Solomon said. “We won the first set 25-15 and it looked promising for the next set. The youth set in and we started having inconsistencies where we just couldn’t seem to jive on the court. When the passes were on, the hits were off. When the hitters seemed to be eager for a ball to hit, the passes were off. We are going to work on getting it fixed for next week when we play Benton.”
