Shining moments and exciting things

The Encampment Lady Tigers have been working their whole season to prove that they can compete in the 1A Southwest Conference. While last year they didn't get the chance to go to the 1A West Regional Tournament, the possibility of attending is closer this year with a pigtail game against the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns on Monday evening.

The past week, however, was a long one for Encampment as they hosted the North Park Lady Wildcats (30-32, 25-18, 25-22, 25-23) on Oct. 22, were hosted by Valley rivals the Saratoga Lady Panthers (12-25, 20-25, 12-25) on Oct. 24 and hosted conference foes the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (25-23, 15-25, 11-25, 25-19, 7-15) on Oct. 26.

Lady Tigers vs.

Lady Wildcats

When Encampment was hosted by the Lady Wildcats earlier in the season, the North Park netters were able to send the Lady Tigers home with a loss across four sets. With less than a month between the rematch, Encampment was able to turn the game around when they hosted the Lady Wildcats.

"I think we just came out and were ready to play. We played pretty calm that game, which suits are team well. When we get too amped up, we tend to make mistakes, but with North Park we were just calm the whole game," said Robin Brown, head coach of the Lady Tigers. "Front row, we weren't as strong as we normally are, but our back row play was very smooth and they were working as one in the back row and so that made the whole difference was their defense."

The first set between the Lady Tigers and North Park was very similar to one that had occurred during the Oct. 3 game in which the two teams went point-for-point up into the 30s. The Lady Wildcats would win the first set by two points, but Encampment quickly turned the game around and were victorious the following three.

"When we went down to North Park, we struggled with them tipping at us and so the girls were prepared for that and they did what they had to do to keep the tips from hurting us," Brown said. "They did some good things."

In the next three sets, the Lady Tigers kept ahead of North Park enough to end each of them at the 25 point mark and send the Lady Wildcats back across the border with a loss.

Lady Tigers vs.

Lady Panthers

Following the win against North Park earlier in the week, Encampment departed Tiger Nation and ventured into the Panther Den. The score, as it often can be, was not indicative of the work the Lady Tigers put in nor the times they led Saratoga.

"We did some really exciting things. I think most of the sets we came out and were playing point-for-point with them or were even taking the lead for a while," said Brown. "When we were hitting, we were hitting pretty hard."

Despite keeping up with the Lady Panthers early in each match, Saratoga would eventually pull away from the Lady Tigers to secure a win across all three sets. Brown, however, was impressed with how her team was able to provide defense against Saratoga, which she admits have some heavy hitters, and had praise for junior Lindsie Farver.

"I thought Lindsie did a really good job of playing defense against them and reading where they were going and being able to pop the ball up," Brown said. "We just weren't quite able to convert it into us being quite as aggressive throughout the whole 25 points."

The second set was the closest the Lady Tigers would come to nearly toppling the No. 2 team in the southwest conference as they went 20-25. The bookending first and third set, meanwhile, saw scores of 12-25. 

Lady Tigers vs.

Lady Rattlers

On Saturday, Tiger Nation played host to LSRV following their loss to Saratoga the night before. The Lady Tigers would end up stretching the game across five sets and providing similar gameplay to what was seen against the Lady Panthers as they went point-for-point and even led the Lady Rattlers at times.

"I thought we played pretty well," said Brown. "I thought we had a pretty good showing."

The Lady Tigers would come out swinging in the first set with the intent of sinking their claws into LSRV as they ended the beginning match with a score of 25-23. As the game continued, however, the Lady Rattlers would strike back and deal two losses to Encampment during sets two and three.

"We just didn't quite have the endurance to pull that the entire game. So, we would come out for a set and be mentally prepared for it and excited and just play volleyball for the love of volleyball and that's when we played well," Brown said. "Then, the next set, it would be that they were putting so much pressure on themselves to play like that, again, that then we made the mistakes."

The slump in the middle sets saw the Lady Tigers fall by 10 and 14 points, respectively, before they got back on their feet for a win in the fourth set. With a win of 25-19, the game was pushed into a fifth and final set. The Lady Rattlers, however, would end up winning with a final score of 7-15.

While the Lady Tigers were dealt another loss in conference play, a Monday night pigtail game against the Lady Pronghorns would be the road to regionals that Encampment needed.

"The shining moments were when they played just to play and played as a team and had fun. That's what we're planning on taking into Monday with us, is if we can do that every set then we should be successful," said Brown.

Lady Tigers vs.

Lady Pronghorns

Despite the winter-like conditions that descended upon southern Wyoming, the Lady Tigers were able to head to Rawlins where they competed in the pigtail game against Farson-Eden.

As the two teams faced off to determine who would be going to regionals, Encampment pulled out three consecutive wins against the Lady Pronghorns as they went 25-17, 25-17, 25-18 against Farson-Eden.

Having secured their spot in the 1A West Regional Tournament, the Lady Tigers will face the Meeteetse Lady Longhorns (17-4-3, 8-0) at 11:30 a.m. on Nov. 1 at Riverton High School.