Lady Tigers take two

While the Encampment Lady Tigers had a rough few weekends recently, they finally had some wins to celebrate as they had a 2-0 weekend. Encampment travelled to face off against the Laramie Lady Plainsmen Sophomores (25-18, 25-12, 25-19) on Friday and hosted the Rock River Lady Longhorns (22-25, 25-20, 26-24, 14-25, 15-11) on Saturday. While neither victory was a conference win, it gave the Lady Tigers a moral boost and showed how much work they've put in recently as well as how much they've grown over the season.

"I think, just in this year, they've grown so much. It's been really fun to see them step up and come into their own and figure out who they are as volleyball players and then as a team on top of it," said Robin Brown, head coach of the Lady Tigers.

Encampment vs. Laramie Sophomores

In a recently scheduled game against the young Lady Plainsmen, Encampment was able to dispatch the Laramie Sophomores in three sets. The win against the Lady Plainsmen was the precursor to the winning weekend that the Lady Tigers saw and would celebrate. In all three sets, Encampment managed to keep the junior varsity team from the 4A team from scoring higher than 20.

Encampment vs. Rock River

When the Lady Tigers were hosted by Rock River (3-1, 8-7) earlier in the season on Sept. 14, they left the Lady Longhorns' territory after winning three sets in a row. The ladies of Rock River, however, were not going to be as easily taken care of this game and made Encampment work for their wins.

"The first time we played them, I think they were just a little bit off," Brown said. "We know they are better than what they showed us the first time around, so we kind of were prepared for that. We talked a little bit about how they weren't going to let it be easy for us and we needed to be on our 'A' game if we wanted to take a second win."

Junior Katie Russell, who had proven herself to be quite the server, was out during the weekend due to illness.

Halfway through the first set, sophomore Grace Tieszen would put herself out for the rest of the game after diving for the ball. Striking her head on the gym floor, the audience fell silent until it was clear that Tieszen could stand on her own. When she did finally stand, applause filled the gymnasium. Sitting out for the rest of the game, Tieszen was replaced by fellow sophomore Amber Stubbs.

"I think Amber did a great job playing all the way around," said Brown. "Normally she just plays front row when we do put her in varsity, so having to play back row I think she did great. Over four-and-a-half sets, I think she had one error the entire time, which is amazing for anybody let alone someone who's not used to that."

The Lady Longhorns took advantage of the few errors that Encampment made during the first set and won. Not to be outdone on their home court, however, the Lady Tigers defeated Rock River in the second and third set. In the second set, senior Lauren Buford helped bring Encampment ahead with a number of successful serves and fellow senior Noelle Peterson's leadership and communication kept the Lady Tigers on their feet.

Along with Buford, freshman Katie Dugger also had a number of successful serves that contributed to Encampment's successful two consecutive sets.

"Her (Dugger's) serve, all year, has been really, really consistent and she has been really good. We're throwing her in wherever we need that serve and she's played all the back row positions and just always keeps her calm about it. She just steps in calm, collected," Brown said.

Extended rallies, some that lasted for several minutes at a time, also highlighted the two middle sets of the five set match and often saw Rock River and the Lady Tigers go point-for-point until Encampment pushed ahead. Sophomore's Lindsie Farver and Shiann Finney quickly went to the floor to dig any attempt at scoring by the Lady Longhorns out of their court, often times sending the ball clear over the net in the first hit.

The fourth set, the Lady Longhorns fought back and ended the set with an 11 point lead against the Lady Tigers. Rock River took huge advantage of whatever errors that Encampment had which, at times, seemed to include some breakdown in communication as the Lady Tigers worked to counter the Lady Longhorns. As the match headed into the tie-breaker fifth set, however, Encampment would not let the ladies of Rock River win again.

During the final set, it would be Finney who helped the Lady Tigers get ahead and become victorious against Rock River as she had a number of successful serves. The 3-2 victory against the 1A Southeast team showed, over the five sets, to be a team effort and highlighted Encampment working together towards a win.

With the two victories this weekend, the Lady Tigers are still 0-5 for the conference, but 6-8 for the season as they hit the halfway point of the season.

Following their wins against the Laramie Sophomores and the Lady Pronghorns, Encampment will travel to Buffalo to take part in the 1A tournament on Oct. 5 and 6. After that, the next games for the Lady Tigers will be at 2 p.m. on Oct. 12 in Farson-Eden and at 1 p.m. on Oct. 13 in Cokeville.