By Rob Patrick
Photos by Kevin Nagle
After winning seven of their last eight matches — and pressing unbeaten Conway in the one loss — and clinching a trip to the Class 7A State Tournament in Bentonville, the Bryant Lady Hornets volleyball team was ripe for a letdown. And it came Tuesday night against the North Little Rock Lady Charging Wildcats.
Playing on their home floor where they have struggled, oddly, more than on the road this season, the Lady Hornets suffered a 24-26, 18-25, 24-26 loss. Earlier in their winning streak, they had won at North Little Rock in five games.[more]
Coming into the match, Bryant had a chance to finish second in the league and earn a first-round bye at State. The loss slotted them as the third seed. They will open play at State on Tuesday, Oct. 26, at 2 p.m., against the No. 6 seed from the 7A-West, the winner of Tuesday’s Rogers-Rogers Heritage contest.
“The girls didn’t play together tonight at all,” commented Bryant head coach Beth Solomon. “Gosh, we haven’t played like that since the beginning of the season.“One or two of them got down for some reason and it just dragged the rest of the down with them,” she added. “They tried to fight back in the third game but it just didn’t happen."
Solomon added, however, if it was going to happen, it was better to have the letdown now than next week at State.
“We said, ‘This is over. Tonight didn’t hurt us as far as State goes,’” she said after an extended post-match meeting with the team. “But, at the same time, we wanted to get it out of our system.
“I think it more hurts the girls mentally more than it hurts anything else so we’re going to get out here tomorrow and fix it and be ready to go Thursday night against CAC,” Solomon related. “That will give them a chance, I hope, to get their confidence back.”
North Little Rock featured a strong front line that proved difficult for Bryant to block consistently.
Though they fell behind early in the opening game of the match, the Lady Hornets never trailed by much all night. The first game was tied repeatedly and, ultimately, at 24-24 after North Little Rock had nudged out to a 23-20 lead. Bryant rallied behind Maggie Hart’s dink and two kills by McKenzie Rice as Hannah Rice was serving. The second of McKenzie Rice’s kills had the Lady Hornets up 24-23.
But the Lady Cats scored the last two points to win the game.
In the second game, Bryant held the upper hand narrowly early on. Hannah Rice had an ace then Amber Cope added a kill and the Bryant lead was 9-7.
But when North Little Rock scored the next four points, it was in the lead to stay.
In the third game, Bryant took the early lead on kills by Cope, Breanna White and Courtney Davidson but after North Little Rock turned a 4-2 deficit into an 8-4 lead, the Lady Cats maintained until a late Bryant charge.
The Lady Hornets trailed 19-16 but kills by Davidson and Hart helped produce a 19-19 tie. It was tied at every point after that through 24. A block by White pulled Bryant even for the last time before North Little Rock closed with the final two points to take the match.
Hart led the team with 10 kills. White had six blocks. Hannah Rice contributed 30 assists, 13 digs and served up two aces to pace the team in each of those stats.
“The stats weren’t up to par,” Solomon noted.
The Lady Hornets’ junior varsity lost as well, 21-25, 25-12, 7-15.
Haley Sherrill led with six kills. Taylor West had 16 assists, Kaylon Wilson 16 digs and Alex Boone served for a pair of aces.
The first game of the match was tight. The two teams were tied at 20 before North Little Rock finished with a 4-1 run.
In the second game, Bryant jumped out to a 5-1 lead, marked by an opening kill from Brooke Howell who then served an ace.The Lady Hornets maintained the advantage throughout with Howell getting another kill and Alyssa Anderson and Sherrill adding two each.
North Little Rock turned the tables on the Lady Hornets in the tiebreaker, starting 4-1 and never trailing.
