Encampment dealt losses at home

With the regional tournament little more than a week away, the Encampment Lady Tiger are still on the search for another conference win. Their placing in the 1A Southwest Conference has become even more important following this weekend's game as they hosted the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns (7-7, 3-3) on Friday and the Cokeville Lady Panthers (11-7-1, 7-0) on Saturday.

Lady Tigers vs. Lady Pronghorns

When Farson-Eden hosted the Lady Tigers earlier in the season, the Lady Pronghorns evaded Encampment's claws across three sets. This time, however, Farson-Eden was not so lucky as they went five sets with the Lady Tigers. 

In the 1st set, in fact, Encampment went 25-23 against the Lady Pronghorns. The 2nd set saw Farson-Eden speed ahead of the Lady Tigers with a score of 14-25 only for Encampment to take the 3rd set 25-23. In the 4th and 5th set, however, the Lady Pronghorns secured two more wins as they went 20-25 and 9-15.

"We started out really strong, really determined, played with a lot of heart. We just kind of were on that roller coaster that we've been on throughout the season and we'd play really well and clean for 5 or 6 points and then we'd kind of let them back in and give them 5 or 6 points. When we were playing clean, we played very well. Saw a lot of really good things. I thought we blocked very well, so it was harder for them to get some strong hits on us," said Robin Brown, head coach of the Lady Tigers. "Defensively, we were doing good things. So it was just a matter of cleaning up a few of our errors as far as hitting and serving and otherwise we would have been right there."

Ultimately, the Lady Tigers fell 2-3 to Farson-Eden for a conference loss.

Lady Tigers vs. Lady Panthers

Just a week after being hosted by the No. 1 Lady Panthers, Encampment hosted Cokeville for their final home game of the season. With the Lady Tigers getting the early game on Saturday, before Cokeville went on to be hosted by Saratoga, the Encampment netters nearly snatched a set from the orange-and-black Lady Panthers as they went 20-25 in the 1st set. The 1st set, in fact, saw the Lady Tigers leading for most of it. 

Cokeville, however, would find their footing and go on to take the next two sets with large leads, going 8-25 in the 2nd set and 9-25 in the 3rd set.

"It was the same today as it was when we played in Cokeville, that we started off really strong and they just kind of got the best of us. I think sometimes we would get mentally in our head because they would get one good hit and then we had a hard time recovering from that instead of just bouncing back," Brown said. "The 1st set, however, it wasn't that way. We came out swinging and that was the key for us, is that if we swing at them first then we usually had a better rally than if we let them swing or if we gave them a free ball we had trouble converting it over."

Following their 0-2 weekend against two conference foes, the Encampment Lady Tigers are 5-9 for the season and 1-6 for conference play. Encampment will be hosted by the Rock River Lady Longhorns on Thursday and the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (7-7. 2-4) on Friday.

"We have to beat Little Snake (River). It's pretty much 'do or die' for us. Even if we do win that, Farson has to beat them also and if it goes that way then I believe it goes to a coin flip for Little Snake and us to go to regionals," said Brown. "Whoever would win that coin flip then would be seeded four and that would be against Cokeville, I assume."

Encampment will face the Lady Longhorns at 4:30 p.m. on October 22 in Rock River and will be hosted by the Lady Ratters at 4 p.m. on October 23 in Baggs.