Bryant girls knock off Sheridan
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SHERIDAN — Junior Lindsey Phillips scored three goals in the first half as the Bryant Lady Hornets came back from spring break with an impressive 7-0 win over the AAAAA-South Conference leading Sheridan Lady Jackets on Monday, March 28.
The win evened the Lady Hornets’ overall record at 6-6. They are 2-3 in AAAAA-Central Conference play. Sheridan, which is 3-0 in AAAAA-South competition, dropped to 5-3 on the season with the loss.
Bryant built a 6-0 lead in the first half on the strength of Phillips’ goals. Junior Mandi Howell added two more and sophomore Morgan Hart knocked one into the net. In the second half, senior Amber Mundis completed the scoring in the game.
“Sheridan’s a much improved team from what I’ve seen in the past,” noted Lady Hornets head coach Doug Maxwell. “I was really pleased especially — you’re always a little concerned coming off a long break like spring break. Then one of our center-mids, her flight was delayed so she didn’t make it in, coming back from the west coast. We played without her and then Brittney Sterrett torn her ACL. We lost her the day before spring break.
“So I was pleased with the way the girls stepped up with a solid performance,” he added. “We didn’t allow any shots on goal in the first half and only, I think, four in the second half. Sheridan had a couple of runs but, in the first half, nothing ever reached the 18. We did a solid job in midfield.
“We missed a couple of shots that we had down there that we were a little rusty on, just a couple of shots wide of the goal.”
The Lady Hornets will get back to the practice field this week before returning to conference play against two teams they suffered losses to in the first run through the league. They play at Mount St. Mary’s on April 5, then host North Little Rock on April 7.
“We’ll try to get some of the rust off,” Maxwell said. “I thought last time (against Mount St. Mary’s) we were a little slow off the touch, really our one-touches were off. We were really kind of playing on the heels. We’ll try to get some of that quickness back.
“We really displayed that well (against Sheridan),” he added. “Probably the best I’ve seen as far as combinations and taking the ball inside and outside and really limiting what they were able to do defensively to get in front of us. It’s something we’ve been working on the last couple of weeks and hopefully we can show that against Mount St. Mary’s.”
The Belles handed the Lady Hornets their worst loss of the season, 6-1. But that was on Feb. 24.
“We’re looking forward to the re-match,” Maxwell asserted.
