Ending on a high note

The Encampment Lady Tigers played their final three games this week as they brought to a close a tough season for the team. Despite working through a season that didn't have a single conference win, the Encampment girls made sure that their final two home games were straight sweeps for the hometown crowd.

Tiger Nation hosted the North Park Lady Wildcats (25-22, 25-23, 25-22) on Thursday, Encampment then traveled to take on the Lady Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (20-25, 25-18, 21-25, 25-22, 11-15) on Friday and played their final game of the season as they hosted the Hanna, Elk Mountain and Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners (25-12, 26-24, 25-12) on Saturday.

Encampment

vs. North Park

When the Lady Tigers travelled to Walden to take on North Park in September, they left with a 0-3 loss. This time, when the Lady Wildcats entered Tiger Nation, they would leave Encampment with a loss as the Lady Tigers defeated them 3-0. The Encampment girls were determined not to have a repeat of their last game against the Colorado team.

Encampment vs. LSRV

Following their victory over North Park, the Lady Tigers travelled over the divide to face off against the Lady Rattlers (2-6, 6-11-2). When the conference rivals played against each other over a month before, Encampment lost 1-3 to LSRV. The Lady Tigers had the goal of a conference win in mind as they played in Baggs and, if achieved, would lead to a pig-tail game to determine who would advance to the regional tournament.

Encampment did their best to overcome the Lady Rattlers, forcing the match to extend across five sets. Ultimately, however, LSRV would come out on top and end the Lady Tigers' chances of heading to the regional tournament.

Encampment vs. HEM

The final game for Encampment was held at home as they hosted the Lady Miners on Saturday. This game, much like the one against North Park, showed that the struggles the Lady Tigers had throughout the season were resulting in positive gains. In early September, Encampment were hosted by the Lady Miners and played a five set match that resulted in HEM defeating the Lady Tigers 2-3.

"I think this really shows where we are at skillswise and how well we improved throughout the season," said Robin Brown, head coach of the Lady Tigers.

For their final game of the season, playing in Tiger Nation, Encampment's girls were not about to lose. Emotions were already present as, for three Lady Tigers, this would be the last game they played on the court. Before the varsity game began, seniors Taylor Huntley, Lauren Buford and Noelle Peterson were all honored. Along with being presented flowers, the girls were presented photo albums from the Lady Tigers' superfan, Mary Martin.

Communication was evident with Encampment as they worked like a well-oiled machine in both offense and defense. While HEM would try to take advantage of the Lady Tigers' errors, Encampment put those advantages to a stop when they could. Junior Katie Russell, sophomores Lindsey Farver and Shiann Finney and Buford and Peterson racked up multiple points against the Lady Miners across all three sets.

While Encampment won the first set by a 13 point margin, HEM attempted to overturn the momentum in the second set where both teams would battle for each point. Eventually, though, the Lady Tigers were victorious and continued their winning streak. The third set echoed the first as Encampment had another 13 point margin and brought the match to a close.

For the final time, Buford, Huntley and Peterson led Tiger Nation in a cheer as they fought back tears. While the Lady Tigers' season was ending on Saturday, and the team wasn't able to add a conference win to their record, friends and family cared little as evidenced by how loudly they cheered for the Encampment girls.

Next year, the Lady Tigers lose three girls as Buford, Huntley and Peterson will graduate this year and Russell will likely be the only senior on the team. Brown, however, is optimistic as this year's sophomores will become juniors and she will also be receiving a new batch of freshman.

"The sophomore class this year, that's going to be juniors, they're very talented and very passionate about the sport and I think we'll have most of them back to work for us," Brown said. "The 8th grade class this year that will be freshman, there's quite a few of them and they're pretty athletic and pretty into the sport."

Following the final three games, the Lady Tigers are 0-8 for the conference and end the season 5-11-1.