Encampment bit on road to regionals

After a coin toss, the Encampment Tigers are going to regionals in Lander as the No. 1 seed for the 1A Southwest Conference.

Saturday, the Lady Tigers (4-1, 18-2) lost their first conference game this season in four sets against the Little Snake River Lady Rattlers (3-1, 16-3) in Baggs.

The Lady Tigers won the first set 25-22, only to lose 20-25, 25-12, 25-12 in the final three sets.

Against HEM, the Lady Tigers won in three sets 25-12, 25-13 and 25-18.

The team made a some hitting errors in the third set, Encampment Lady Tigers Head Coach Robin O'Leary said.

The Lady Tigers, who have been working on their serve and receive skills for the last two weeks, showed improvement in the game against HEM.

The Lady Tigers have been playing with a high level of intensity the entire season. "I have asked them to be aggressive no matter what the score is," O'Leary said, "and they have done it."

Cassidy Little, who is a quiet junior off the court, is aggressive on the court. She has been hitting well all season. "Personally, I wouldn't want to play against any of my teammates," Little said. "We push each other to be the best."

Little said that intensity helps her and her teammates to play well.

Little is looking forward to her third year at regionals. "There are a lot of good teams at regionals, we just have to play our game and not get distracted by the fans and the crowd."

Little said not having to play a pigtail game to get into regionals is a confidence boost for the team, and the experience the team has will help at regionals.

Little said regional are different than the regular season, because the regionals games matter. "We have been playing practice games. Now it is time to put in everything we have learned during the season."

With outside hitter Alyssa Barkhurst and middle blocker Mackenzie Powell backing up Little's digs, and setter Sierra Loftice's delivery, the team plays an aggressive game and it showed in the 25-12 smack down against HEM in the first set Friday night at the Encampment School gym.

A. Barkhurst seemed to anticipate the moves of the HEM's middle blockers as she angled the ball past her opponent's blockers.

The Lady Tigers had a solid lead of 12-6 following one of A. Barkhurst's kills. Little blocked the ball and scored a kill for Saratoga's 14th point. The Lady Tigers drove the score up to 15 before the HEM Lady Miners answered with 1 point.

Powell's powerful kills daunted the Lady Miners and when HEM's defense returned a kill attempt, teammate A. Barkhurst went in for a dig setting the ball for Powell to hit again. HEM rallied again and A. Barkhurst hit a kill. The Lady Tigers had an 11 point lead, 22-11.

A. Barkhurt's outside hit scored the winning point 25-13.

The third set looked much like the first two, with the Lady Tigers leading 21-9.

HEM's middle blocker, Cheyenne Hunter, blocked Little's hit. The Lady Tigers scored 2 points, and the Lady Miners took their opportunity to score 8 points to the Lady Tiger's 1 point. The Lady Miner's middle blocker scored one of the points when she blocked Loftice's bump, an offensive strategy that usually catches the opponent off-guard. This time is the Lady Tigers were caught off guard as they scrambled to try and save the play.

Hailey Barkhurst scored the winning point with her outside hit against the Lady Miners.