Saratoga dealt duo of losses

Coming off their first conference win of the season, the Saratoga Lady Panthers suffered a slight setback as they followed that win with two conference losses. Saratoga was hosted by the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (4-2, 2-1) and the Cokeville Lady Panthers (5-4-1, 1-0) on Saturday.

Despite the losses, Head Coach Shayley Love saw positives for her team with both matches.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Rattlers

“The LSRV game was a tough one for us. We just really struggled getting our block set and getting our defense shifted quick enough,” said Love. “Our girls will agree we played flat and definitely not at the level we are used to playing at.”

Sophomore Whitney Bennett led the team in attacking the net against LSRV, with 13 kills. Sophomore Oliva Everett followed with 6 kills while sophomore Shelby Knotwell and senior Savannah Wells each followed with 2 kills. Saratoga secured one ace against the Lady Rattlers, which came from senior Sam Duke.

The Lady Panthers’ blocking game proved to be making itself known as Everett had 3 blocks against LSRV and was followed by Bennett with 1 block.

Wells dug deep on the court as she had 20 digs against the Lady Rattlers. Bennett followed with 15 digs and senior Tasia Daley had 12 digs.

“I was proud of them for pushing through it and still trying to play competitive even though we seemed to not have things clicking for us,” Love said.

The Lady Rattlers won all three sets; 21-25, 20-25, 15-25.

“After that game, we refocused and started talking about the things we did well and the things we needed to do better for our Saturday game against Cokeville,” said Love.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Panthers

The first set between the two teams saw the defending state runner-ups deal a loss to the defending state champions, 26-24.

“We did take a set from Cokeville, which was exciting because it has been a while since a 1A team has done that,” Love said. “It is something we really thought we would do last year but I think it shows potential in what our team has in the fact that we did it this year.”

The following three sets, however, saw the orange and black Lady Panthers defeat Saratoga 3-25, 15-25, 17-25.

Bennett, again, led the attack with 8 kills but was joined by Wells, who also had 8 kills. Everett followed with 6 kills. Knotwell, Daley and Duke each had 1 kill against Cokeville. Daley also managed to serve 2 aces against the hosting Lady Panthers and was followed by Wells with 1 ace.

The visiting Lady Panthers also worked on their blocking some more as Everett had 3 solo blocks and 4 block assists against Cokeville. Bennett followed with 2 solo blocks and 1 block assist and Duke had 1 solo block and 5 block assists.

Bennett led in digging, with a total of 17 digs against Cokeville. Daley followed with 16 digs. Senior Lexi Herring had 9 digs and Duke had 8 digs.

“We did a much better job defensively and blocked very well and read our hitters better,” said Love. “Our serves and serve receives ultimately struggled a bit in this match. Once we get each component clicking, this team will see some great things happen.”

Following their losses last week, the Saratoga Lady Panthers are 3-5 for the season and 1-2 in conference play. They hit the road this weekend for a single non-conference game before returning to conference games in October.

The Saratoga Lady Panthers will be hosted by the Guernsey-Sunrise Lady Vikings beginning at 1 p.m. on September 26.