Lady Panthers go 1-1 for weekend

The Saratoga Lady Panthers hit the road over the weekend as they were hosted by two conference foes. On Friday evening, the Lady Panthers were hosted by the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns (4-11-2, 1-6) where they secured a win in three sets. The following day, Saratoga was hosted by the Cokeville Lady Panthers (24-5, 7-0) where they ultimately lost to the hosting Lady Panthers.

“We had a hard time getting our block set against Cokeville, which we typically rely on,” said Shayley Love, head coach of the Lady Panthers. “However, our back row defense did well trying to pick up everything. Definitely need to review some film for the future with them.”

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Pronghorns

When Saratoga hosted the Lady Pronghorns in September, Farson-Eden left the Panther Den with a devastating loss across three sets. While the Lady Pronghorns managed to keep the score closer during their rematch, they failed to escape Saratoga’s claws.

Senior Aubrey Berger led the Lady Panthers with 11 kills against Farson-Eden. Fellow senior Taylor Bennett followed with 7 kills and freshman Whitney Bennett had 6 kills.

Junior Lexi Herring led in aces with a total of 4 aces served against the Lady Pronghorns across 7 serves. Herring was also able to maintain 100 percent serving against Farson-Eden. W. Bennett served 2 aces against the Lady Pronghorns across 14 serves and Berger served 2 aces across 18 serves.

Solo blocks were few with T. Bennett, Sam Duke and Makiya Johnson each having one solo block. Johnson and Jena Dew each had one block assist while Berger had two block assists.

Libero Tasia Daley continued to keep the Lady Pronghorns from scoring as she dug out the ball a total of 19 times. W. Bennett followed with 14 digs, Berger with 12 digs and T. Bennett with 10 digs.

While Farson-Eden appeared caught off guard in the first set, with a score of 25-10, they attempted to make the Lady Panthers work for their win as the second set ended 27-25 and the third set saw a final score of 25-23.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Panthers

Following their victory over Farson-Eden, the Lady Panthers were hosted on Saturday by Cokeville. When Saratoga hosted the other Lady Panthers of the 1A Southwest Conference in September, they kept on Cokeville’s heels and made them work for the win with the third set often going point-for-point.

This time, the No. 1 Lady Panthers managed to keep the No. 2 Lady Panthers at bay for another victory, though not without some effort from Saratoga.

Berger and Dew were the lead killers against Cokeville with 6 kills each. T. Bennett followed with 4 kills and junior Savannah Wells had 2 kills.

In serving, Herring served 1 ace against the hosting Lady Panthers across 7 serves and maintained 100 percent successful serves. 

Blocking was a team effort as there were no solo blocks against Cokeville, but two assisted blocks between Johnson and Dew.

Daley continued leading the team as the head digger with 20 digs against Cokeville. W. Bennett followed with 13 digs and Berger had 10 digs.

Following their 1-1 weekend, the Saratoga Lady Panthers are now 19-3 for the season and 4-2 for conference play. Saratoga will host the Encampment Lady Tigers (4-12-1, 1-5) at 5 p.m. on Oct. 24 and will be hosted by the Little Snake River Valley Lady Rattlers (18-9-1, 3-3) at 7 p.m. on Oct. 25.

“As far as Encampment and Baggs, it’s been a while since we’ve played them,” Love said. “We’ll need to refocus this week on their strengths and what we need to do to shut them down. Should be a fun week wrapping up our regular season.”