Lady Tigers burning up nets

The Encampment School volleyball team put in another strong performance over the weekend at Hanna Saturday keeping the team’s undefeated streak alive.

The varsity team defeated rivals from Rock River, Lingle, Guernsey, Kaycee and Glendo. Over the course of ten games, the team won all sets and all matches. While there were a couple close calls for the Tigers in two games when the team only won by two points, the team handily defeated their opponents in the other 8 games.

One of the close games was against Rock River. The team played against Rock River twice, and won the first game 25-23.

“Rock River has strong servers and we struggled passing the ball well during the first game,” Encampment coach Robin O’Leary said. “I appreciated our team’s determination to fix that and do much better the next game.”

Encampment defeated Rock River 25-6 in the second game. Cheyanne Jordan served 16 times in the first game, and 18 in the second, with a total of three aces for her effort, and Sierra Martinez brought 16 assists to the offense over the course of the match. McKenzie Powell played strong defense, with six blocks and six kills against the Lady Longhorns.

The only other team that gave the Tigers a run for their money was Lingle, who fell to Encampment in both games, despite scoring well against Encampment. Encampment won the first game against Lingle 25-18, and defeated them again 25-23 in the second.

O’Leary called the match against a Lingle a hard fought game, but praised her team for consistency and a strong defense against a high-scoring team.

“We had a 99 percent serving consistency which really helped,” O’Leary said. “Lingle’s serve-receive is strong, so we really had to play defense and attack the ball to score.”

In the matchups against Lingle, Sierra Martinez served 14 times in the first and 15 in the second, and bolstered the offense with 19 assists in the match. McKenzie Powell put in a strong defensive effort by contributing nine kills and one block, and Paige Powell chipped in six kills and 13 blocks.

The Tigers roughed up Guernsey with two wins, one 25-9 and the other 25-12. O’Leary used the opportunity to put more players on the court. “We got to put some of our subs in,” She said. “Both our subs and the starters did a great job playing together to accomplish the win.”

Glendo also fell to Encampment by a wide margin. Encampment defeated Glendo 25-11 in the first game, and 25-16 in the second. “It was great getting our bench some time on varsity,” O’Leary said. “These are the girls that help us out when we are in a pinch so I am grateful they got some court time and showed me they could handle this level of play.”

Encampment kept its undefeated streak going by dispatching Kaycee most decidedly on Saturday. The Tigers slashed the Lady Bucs defeating them 25-15 in the first game, and 25-18 in the second. In this round, the Tigers passing skills allowed the team to deploy some of its more complicated plays against the Lady Bucs. Each player on the team contributed two or three digs to set up teammates for strong plays.

The Encampment Tigers will hope to continue its winning streak at upcoming tournaments this week. The team will host Hanna-Elk Mountain-Medicine Bow School on Friday, Sept. 16, and will hit the court again Sept. 17 against Rock River, also on Encampment’s home court.