Lady Hornets win varsity, JV matches in dramatic fashion
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).
HOT SPRINGS — The Bryant Lady Hornets put themselves in position to sweep the Hot Springs Lakeside Lady Rams in three sets in the season-opener for both volleyball teams on Tuesday. Though they were unable to finish it off at that point, what wound up happening may have benefits that contributes more to the team in the long run.
Lakeside rallied to tie the match 2-2 and appeared to have all the momentum going into the fifth and decisive game. But the Lady Hornets regrouped and wound up winning the game and the match. It ended 25-13, 25-21, 23-25, 19-25, 15-9.
“Wow,” exclaimed Lady Hornets head coach Beth Solomon. “Oh, wow! We had a great night.
“I really thought we were going to pull it out in three but I’m glad we got to see the team that we saw in game five,” she added. “It’s good that they went to five and showed themselves that they could battle and get the win. The girls played hard.
“We joked with them after the game that, since we’ve been working so hard this summer, that they really just wanted to make sure they got in as much playing time as they could,” the coach related.
“I was really proud of the entire team,” she stated, “not just the six that were on the court at one time. This was a total team effort.”
Senior Raven Loveless led the way with 23 kills. Faith Stone added nine and Kristen Boyle five.
Ashlyn Lee picked up three kills to go with 26 assists. She was also good on 22 of 24 serves with two ace. Defensively, she picked up three digs.
Truli Bates and Ivory Russ had two kills each.
Lexi Brown contributed six assists and got in all 14 of her serves with two aces. Cassie Ray was good on 19 of 20 serves with a team-high three aces. She also had two digs.
At the service line, Erin Thompson got in 15 of her 16 serves, Kyla Baker was good on 14 of 15 and Reagan Dabbs went 7 for 7. Baker came up with a pair of digs. Thompson and Macey Loudon had one each.
In a junior varsity match, the results were similar. Bryant won the first game 25-22 but lost 14-25 in the second set and appeared to be behind the momentum only to rally to win the rubber game, 15-12, to take the match.
“I was really proud of our JV team,” Solomon said. “They did a great job. We mixed up the line-up in game two, which is why they couldn’t pull out the win in two. It took some getting used to but the girls were able to pull it together and win game three. They did great.”
The Bryant team only had two service errors in 50 serves in the contest. Cora Edwards was good on all 15 of her serves and picked up three aces. Casey Welch and Lexi Brown each garnered an ace.
At the net, Grace Camferdam and Brooke Abney produced eight kills apiece. Imanii Jones added four with Kennedy Kuchinski and Welch knocking down three each. Russ had two and Beatriz Hernandez one.
Brown had nine assists and Jones five. Shannon Stewart led the team with three digs. Ashley Davis had two.
“Now we’re looking forward to our home opener on Thursday aganst Fountain Lake,” Solomon said. “JV starts at 5 and varsity follows.”
