Lady Hornets bounce LR Central, put scare in league-leading Belles
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).
In what may turn out to be a turning point in the 2008 season for their season, the Bryant Lady Hornets won the consolation bracket in their division at the Mid-South Play Day tournament at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro then returned home to notch their second 7A-Central Conference victory over Little Rock Central, 17-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-15.
And two days later, on Thursday, Oct. 2, they made a bid to knock off the league-leading Mount St. Mary’s Belles in their own gym, taking the first two games of the match, 25-20, 25-18 before falling victim to a Belles rally, fueled by a boisterous crowd, 11-25, 9-25, 10-15.
“It was a barnburner,” said head coach Doug Maxwell. “We really had things under control the first two and got into the third one a little bit, maybe a little premature celebration. We had a few mistakes and maybe started to panic a little bit. We just couldn’t seem to calm down.
“We had the top team in the conference on the ropes,” he acknowledged. “But they’ve got that small gym and there was a good crowd. About midway through game two, it got to where it was pretty packed in there and it got loud and it was a really good atmosphere. It was the first time most of our girls had probably experienced that kind of atmosphere, that kind of echo, the crowd support and everything else. It was a good experience for them.”
Junior Ty Lindberg had 12 kills and six blocks including five solo for the Lady Hornets. Fallon Warner added seven and Taylor Shutt six.
The team also served well at 92 percent with just six errors. Jordan Armstrong was 20 of 20, Brittany Hurd 13 of 13 and Jenifer Hubbard 15 of 16. Lindberg served up a pair of aces. Armstrong had 15 assists, Hubbard eight.
Defensively, Hurd had 10 digs, Heather Light nine, Armstrong and Kayla Davidson seven each.
As a team, the Lady Hornets were at 61 percent on serve-receive, a drop from their splendid performance against Central.
“It was really a carryover from how we played up at Jonesboro,” Maxwell said. “We picked up a little confidence up there and it showed against Central. It was the best we’d serve-received all year. We were at 85 percent. We finished the night with 60 kills as a team.”
That included a phenomenal 22 kills for Lindberg, 14 by Davidson and 13 by Shutt. Lindberg also contributed eight blocks. Armstrong finished with a season-high 42 assists as well.
As a team, the Lady Hornets served up 11 aces including three by Hurd and two each from Armstrong, Lindberg and Kasey Baker.
Baker and Hurd each pitched in with 18 digs.
The Lady Hornets were set to continue league play this week, hosting Cabot on Tuesday, Oct. 7 then traveling to Russellville on Thursday, Oct. 9. They’ll play in the Lady Cat Invitational Tournament in Conway on Saturday.
