Lady Panthers head to regionals

The Saratoga Lady Panthers will end their regular season by moving into the 1A Southwest Quadrant Tournament on October 29. Over the weekend, while the Lady Panthers did not have a conference game, they kept their reflexes sharp by taking on the 2A Niobrara County Lady Tigers in Lusk.

“We played well in Lusk,” said Shayley Love, head coach of the Lady Panthers. “The girls had lots of energy and I felt like we finally found consistency and rhythm throughout the game.

Niobrara County did not have the greatest season before they faced the Lady Panthers, having gone 1-16 for the season and 0-4 in their conference. After hosting Saratoga, the Lady Tigers were forced to put another loss on their record as the Lady Panthers went 3-1 against the higher conference team.

“I saw some things we’ve been working on in practice that the girls put together for our match. It was really great to see from all of them,” Love said. “I was also proud of how they came together after a week with some things that happened with a couple of our girls and their families. They were able to rally and support each other, which was what we all needed, I think.”

Sophomore Whitney Bennett led the Lady Panthers in attacking the net with 12 kills and was followed by senior Savannah Wells with 8 kills, freshman Makenna King with 6 kills and sophomore Olivia Everett with 3 kills.

Wells would lead in serving with 5 aces against Niobrara County. Seniors Sam Duke and Tasia Daley and Everett each served 1 aces against the Lady Tigers.

Bennett attacked the court along with attacking the net as she led the team with 23 digs. Daley followed with 21 digs while Wells had 15 digs and senior Lexi Herring had 10 digs.

The Lady Panthers went 25-15, 13-25, 25-19, 25-19 against Niobrara County for a non-conference win before entering the regional tournament.

Saratoga will face the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers in the 1A Southwest Quadrant Tournament. LSRV dealt a loss to the Encampment Lady Tigers last week and will enter the tournament with a season record of 9-17 and a conference record of 4-4. 

“As we move into regionals we will work to fine tune a few things and be ready to go that first round,” said Love.

The Lady Panthers will face LSRV at 4:40 p.m. on October 29 in Cokeville. The winner of that match will move on to face the winner of the Cokeville Lady Panthers and Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorn match at 6 p.m.