Junior Meredith Lincoln sends the ball in the air during the tournament hosted at Saratoga Middle/High School.
The Saratoga Lady Panthers varsity volleyball squad started the season with a good record at the tournament (5-1 overall). They faced Little Snake River, Big Piney, Guernsey-Sunrise, St. Stephens, Wyoming Indian and Laramie. While they lost to Little Snake River (whom they will not play again), the team performed well overall.
"It was good to just see them get out and see them compete a little bit and kind of find out where everybody's at, what positions everybody's playing, if that's going to work best for us. Overall, I thought they played very well as a team and look forward to the next couple of weeks," Lady Panthers coach Shayley Love said of the tournament hosted at Saratoga.
The Lady Panthers played two teams in their 2A conference, Big Piney (3-2 overall) and Wyoming Indian (1-4 overall), though none were official conference matches. The Lady Panthers beat Big Piney in two sets on Friday (25-24, 25-14), and Wyoming Indian in two sets on Saturday (25-23, 25-14). During one Wyoming Indian set Sarah Burton (Jr) served 14 times in a row to win the match.
"I look forward to a great season. They're playing scrappy; they're doing some things last season they struggled with, that we just couldn't catch on to, and this season they've already picked up on that," Love says of their improved anticipation of the ball, serve receive and movements.
All age groups-seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen-are moving into their new roles easily, Love said.
"The overall morale in the gym has been great," Love said during the first week of practice. Love mentioned she planned to tweak the defense slightly so that it suits the team better, especially in the conference play. Love also plans to as speed up the offense based on the abilities of the seniors. Love said that the seniors' experience playing varsity allows them to do different things. "They were playing tough at the net," Love said.
Based on the tournament play, Love said the team could improve little things but is happy with the girls' performance. Love said that the tournament win came from two out of three sets, but conference games are three out of five matches. According to Love, they will focus on maintaining their high performance through the longer sets and being able to compete the whole time.
"As a whole, I'm impressed with where they're at," Love said. "That's our goal-to continue to play together and with the energy we have been."
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