Saratoga stays in second

The Saratoga Lady Panthers continued to keep hold of their No. 2 position in the 1A Southwest conference following two games this weekend against the No. 3 Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns (15-25, 26-24, 24-26, 25-21, 15-7) and the No. 1 Cokeville Lady Panthers (16-25, 17-25, 11-25) on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13, respectively. The 1-1 weekend for the Lady Panthers is a continued sign of the progress the girls of Saratoga have made as they approach the postseason.

Before they ventured to the northwestern portion of the state, the Lady Panthers were hosted by the Hanna, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners (25-17, 21-25, 25-13, 25-16) on Tuesday, Oct. 9 where Saratoga would win against HEM in four sets.

Saratoga vs. HEM

As has been the norm in most games, the Lady Panthers were on point when it came to their defense as well as their offense. Aubrey Berger led in attacks against the Lady Miners, attacking 43 times and sporting 13 kills. Makiya Johnson followed with 29 attacks and had 10 kills and senior Tiffany Bauer had 30 attacks and nine kills.

Taylor Bennett, who has been the lead blocker for Saratoga all season, continued leading in blocking with six blocks against HEM. Jenna Dew had three blocks and Johnson had two.

Berger was the ace leader against the Lady Miners, with five aces. Johnson had three aces and Bennett and Mychaela Jackman both had two aces.

Libero Tasia Daley dug any attempt by HEM to score out of the Lady Panther's courts with 35 digs. Berger had 23 digs and Dew and Bauer both had 19 digs.

Saratoga vs. Farson-Eden

"The girls played great defense against Farson," said Shayley Love, head coach of the Saratoga Lady Panthers. "I feel that is what helped us finish the match strong. I'm really proud of this group for making the necessary adjustments to take care of this match."

Berger had no issues attack the net against the Lady Pronghorns (4-3, 14-5) on Friday, with 68 attacks and 20 kills. Dew followed with 35 attacks and 10 kills and Bauer had 38 attacks and 10 kills.

Bennett was the lead blocker against Farson-Eden, with four total blocks. Two were solo and two were assisted. Berger had two blocks as did Johnson.

Bauer was the main digger against the Lady Pronghorns on Friday with 40 digs. Daley followed with 32 digs and Berger had 17 digs.

Daley, while being second in digging, was the lead in ace serves with two aces. Berger had two as well as did Bauer. Bennett and Jackman both had one ace against the Lady Pronghorns.

In the end, the Lady Panthers took care of Farson-Eden's girls in five sets going 3-2 with the Lady Pronghorns.

Saratoga vs. Cokeville

A day after their victory against the Lady Pronghorns, Saratoga took on the other Panthers of the 1A Southwest conference, No. 1 ranked Cokeville (7-0, 20-9). The Panther-Panther match was a rough one for the ladies of the purple and gold as they lost to the black and orange in three sets.

Bauer was the lead attacker in the game against the rival Panthers with 21 attacks and seven kills. Berger followed with 24 attacks and four kills and Johnson had three kills out of 24 attacks.

Bennett was, once again, the lead blocker with four blocks against Cokeville. Bauer followed with two and Berger, Johnson and Dew all had one.

Johnson was also the only member of the purple and gold to serve an ace against the black and orange.

Despite their best efforts, however, Saratoga lost to Cokeville, who remains the No. 1 team in the conference.

The two games this weekend were the last games against their northern conference rivals before the postseason. Following these two games, Saratoga is now 5-2 for the conference and 19-3 for the season.

The final two games for the regular season will be home games as Saratoga host conference rivals Little Snake River Lady Rattlers (1-5, 6-12) at 6 p.m. on Oct. 18 and the Wind River Lady Cougars at noon on Oct. 20.