Lady Tigers head to regionals

Encampment’s Lady Tigers are heading into volleyball regionals as third-place qualifiers, after a back-to-back loss-win against Little Snake River and HEM.

The Tigers beat the Lady Miners Saturday with 25-16, 25-10, 25-13, but lost to the Lady Rattlers Friday with 16-25, 10-25, 13-25. Encampment’s overall season record is now 16-7-1, which includes a 1A southwest conference record of 7-3.

“Our first game will be against the No. 2 placed team from the north,” said coach Robin O’Leary. “We need to win two games at regionals to make it to state. We must place in the top four.”

O’Leary said she was pleased with the crowd turnout for both nights, but thought the girls could have played better against the Lady Rattlers.

“Unfortunately we didn’t play well Friday night at all,” she said. “I was concerned about this because we haven’t been playing as a team for about three weeks now. We have only had three practices in the last three weeks with all six varsity players together. We have been missing someone for illnesses or getting help with school, and it has really hurt our team.”

After Friday’s letdown, O’Leary said she was relieved to see her team bounce back to playing hard on the court Saturday.

“We were talking, we were aggressive, we were confident and we weren’t worried about making mistakes,” she said. “If we can stay that way I have no doubt we can make it to state. The biggest thing we need to work on is being able to put the ball where they are told to and staying relaxed but aggressive for every point.”

After playing their last season games, O’Leary also gave credit to her JV team for a season well played.

“On Saturday our JV played very well individually and as a team,” she said. “Ashley Turner, Josey Adams, Shelby Howe and Randa Sorensen have greatly improved their control of the ball in all skills, and Emily Morgan is getting very consistent with her sets. They definitely ended their season on a high note.”

West regionals for the Encampment Lady Tigers will be this Friday and Saturday in Lander.