Lady Miners have ups and downs

The Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners had a roller coaster ride last week.

"We had a very busy schedule last week with four games to wrap up one of the final weeks of our season before regionals," said Head Coach Tiera Scott.

The first game started on October 12 against the Saratoga Lady Panthers.

"I thought that the girls came out ready to play on Tuesday," Scott said. "We knew that Saratoga was a good tough team and we had to be ready for hard hitting serves."

The Lady Miners did step up against the Lady Panthers on HEM's home court. The first set HEM took in a close game 25-21. The next set was all Lady Panthers as they won 25-12. The next battle went 27-25 with the Lady Miners prevailing. The last set was also close, 25-23 and again the Lady Miners walked away victorious.

Against Rock River's Lady Longhorns on October 15, the highlight for the Lady Miners that evening was senior recognition night. The Lady Miners lost the game 25-12, 25-9 and 25-12.

"On Friday, I'm not sure what happened with the girls, but they were not in the right mindset to compete," Scott said. "We had a rough go from the start against another good team."

The game was not without some long volleys which kept the home crowd hoping the girls would make a comeback, but it didn't happen.

"I thought the girls had some good hustle plays throughout the three games," Scott said but agreed a highlight of the evening was seeing the seniors' recognition. "We did celebrate our six seniors that night and it was great to see all of their families there to support them."

On Saturday, the Lady Miners went to Midwest to play the Lady Oilers and the Arvada-Claremont Lady Panthers.

"I thought our girls got started a little late during the first game against Arvada, however they picked it up," Scott said. "Charla (Widdison) again served very well and Avery (Scott) hit really well from the outside. Annie (Sikes) did a great job digging balls in the back row as well.

The Lady Miners took the game in three sets although the Lady Panthers played tough the second set. The match went 25-17, 27-25 and 25-21.

The last match went to the Lady Miners also, but two of the sets were close at 25-21, 25-15 and 25-22.

"The girls were warmed up and ready to play," Scott said. ""Our serving was on throughout the entire match and the girls were working together as a team."

Scott gave credit to the Lady Oilers for being good competition.

"Midwest has some good hitters from the outside and our defense did a good job of digging their hits and getting the ball up so that we could keep it in play," Scott said. "We had some longer volleys against Midwest and were able to win the point at the end."

The Lady Miners will play their final of the season on October 22 in Ten Sleep against the Lady Pioneers. HEM beat Ten Sleep on October 14. The Lady Miners are 13-10 overall and 4th in the conference with a 2-2 record.