Lady Tigers secure a conference win

The Encampment Lady Tiger’s work on confidence and game play paid off for them over the weekend as they secured their first conference win of the season. This will force a pigtail game to determine regional placing. The Lady Tigers were hosted by the Cokeville Lady Panthers (24-5, 7-0) on Friday evening and the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns (4-11-2, 1-6) on Saturday afternoon. 

Lady Tigers vs.

Lady Panthers

The first game for Encampment while on the road was against Cokeville, the top team in the 1A Southwest Conference. 

“It was a good weekend for us,” said Robin Brown, head coach of the Encampment Tigers. “We had a lot of good things happening in Cokeville. Even though the scores didn’t show it, we had some really good plays that helped with confidence. Shiann Finney was able to hit with control and use the blockers to score some points.”

While there were good things seen by Brown against the back-to-back defending state champions, Encampment was unable to take a set from the Lady Panthers. The first set saw the Lady Tigers score the highest against Cokeville, but fall 12-25. The Lady Tigers fell in the second set 9-25 and lost 10-25 in the third set.

Lady Tigers vs.

Lady Pronghorns

Following the match against Cokeville, the Lady Tigers took the chance to lick their wounds before being hosted by Farson-Eden the following day. When Encampment hosted the Lady Pronghorns in September, Farson-Eden left Tiger Nation with a win in four sets. This time, however, the Lady Tigers would turn the tables.

“Obviously, the highlight of the weekend was the game in Farson,” said Brown. “We knew going in that this was a high pressure game that would set us up for a chance to be at regionals. The girls came out a little hesitant, but were able to pull together as a team for the win. This game was truly a whole team effort and different players shined at different times.”

While their hosts would secure a win in the first set with a score of 20-25, the Lady Tigers weren’t about to lose a chance to try and pave a way to regionals. The following three sets saw Encampment lead the Lady Pronghorns starting with a score of 27-25 in the second set.

The following sets saw the Lady Tigers increase the score as they won the third set 25-22 and the fourth set 25-19.

“Going forward this week we have games on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so it is a big week with a lot of volleyball,” Brown said. “We have some definite areas to work on in practice this week and will work on consistency throughout the game.”

Encampment will have hosted the North Park Lady Wildcats on Tuesday, will be hosted by the Saratoga Lady Panthers (19-3, 4-2) at 5 p.m. on Thursday and will host the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (18-9-1, 3-3) at 1 p.m. on Saturday.

“It will be important for us to play clean and control our side of the net against both Saratoga and LSRV,” said Brown. “These games are important to us for seeding reasons and for team confidence, so we will be pushing to get the wins and play at a high level every set and even every point.”

Following this weekend, the Encampment Lady Tigers are 4-12-1 for the season and 1-5 for conference play.