Lady Panthers tested early

After playing the Saratoga Invitational Tournament Friday and Saturday, Saratoga High School's Volleyball Coach Shayley Love has a pretty good idea of how her girls are working together.

Friday morning started a little rough as the Lady Panthers went up against the Little Snake River Valley team. They lost their first match in two sets 25-19, 25-4.

"I don't know why, but we don't get as pumped up for some teams," Love said of the match against Snake River. "We played well the first set, but lost our momentum and focus during the second set."

The tournament was a round robin with the best two of three sets. All of the sets over the weekend went to 25.

The Lady Panthers would go on to win every set through the rest of the weekend.

"We are figuring out who belongs in what position and where they play the best and how they mesh together," Love said.

"It is tough, because you can have 12 amazing talented individuals but when you put them on the floor together, we are just still trying to find out how they work together," Love said.

The first weekend, when Saratoga played Hanna Elk Mountain Medicine Bow (HEM) and Encampment, Love played a couple of her girls in three different positions just to see what they could do. "We are starting to solidify that, figuring out who is strongest where," Love said. "We have to figure out each other's tendencies to figure who goes for what."

Veronica Lincoln, who had surgery on her ACL in February and broke her wrist in May, is back on the floor with her teammates. "We need her voice," Love said. "She is our pep for the back row. It's important to have her back on the floor."

Lincoln had been released for her ACL earlier, but just got released by the doctor for the volleyball season the week before it started.

Love said she was worried about Lincoln's wrist, but "obviously it healed very easily." Lincoln appeared to have no problem using her wrist as a Labero throughout the 12 sets she played over the weekend.

Love said Lincoln is starting to feel good and moving better on the floor. During a break between games, Lincoln said she felt the team was doing really well at the tournament and getting where they want to be. Lincoln is the only senior who has played all four years. Lincoln said she is looking forward to watching her team play big. She loves watching her team play well. However, she said she is a little sore, but she is glad to be back to playing. "I didn't know if my knee was going to get released for play or not," Lincoln said. "To be back playing is a great feeling."

Against the Guernsey Lady Vikings the Panthers won in two sets 25-15, 25-10.

Friday afternoon, the Lady Panthers played their third match, this time against the first 2A team of the day, Big Piney.

Big Piney plays in the Southwest conference, and this would give the Lady Panthers a chance to see how a team from the other side of the conference would compete.

Saratoga won both sets, 25-20 and 25-22.

The final match on Friday night was against St. Stephens, and the Lady Panthers would once again prevail in two sets, 25-14, 25-10.

Saturday morning, the Lady Panthers were matched up agains Arvada-Clearmont and came away with another win in two, 25-17 and 25-21.

As the players were into the fifth game in 24 hours, the stress was starting to show on one player. Love pulled her from the game to help her regain her focus. "That is one thing I can say about this team, they have learned to let it go and go on to the next game," Love said. In the final game of the day, the player was back to her top-notch form.

Love said in the past it would take forever to get the girls out of a rut, but now they are just moving on.

In their final game of the tournament, the Lady Panthers went up against Dubois and came out on top with scores of 25-17 and 25-17.

The Lady Panthers play HEM on Thursday in Hanna, then they travel for their first conference game against Southeast on Friday.

"They are good," Love said of Southeast. "They are young and they have a ton of juniors who have played for a few years," Love said. "They are scrappy, but we can compete against them."

Love said the Lady Panther team has had to change their game. Last year, their style was much different. "We were out to get up and hit the ball because we had Heather," Love said. This year they are concentrating on defense. "We are going to refocus on our defense and if we get out there and play some strong defense, we will be OK against them."

Any team is beatable, Love said. "It is such a mental game and we just have to be mentally prepared." Love said she is anxious to see where her team is at against Southeast.

Click on "SHS Stats" in this week's edition for tournament statistics.