Lady Panthers win Valley matchup

The raucous roar of fans filled the Panther Den on September 16 as the Encampment Lady Tigers were hosted by their Valley and conference rivals, the Saratoga Lady Panthers, for their first match-up of the season.

Over the course of five sets, the two teams battled it out in a back-and-forth in a match which saw extended volleys and razor thin leads. Ultimately, the Lady Tigers fell to Saratoga 2-3 marking another conference loss for Encampment. Last weekend, the Lady Tigers fell to the Farson-Eden Pronghorns in five sets while Saratoga dispatched them in three.

“The girls left it all on the floor, which is all a coach can ask for,” said Head Coach Janice Peterson. “We didn’t get the win, but it was an intense battle that will propel our team into the second half of the season.”

The first set of the match was also the one with the highest scores, ending 30-28 in favor of the Lady Panthers. Early in the set, errors from Saratoga were taken advantage of by the Lady Tigers to gain an early lead. Extended volleys in the set showcased the communication amongst players from both teams as each attempted to score against the other. Both teams would use a double-block defense at the net to varying degrees of success.

For Encampment the lead blockers were Kyenna Jackson with a total of 8 blocks and Regin Stewart with a total of 5. Saratoga’s lead blockers, meanwhile, were Cassidy Herring with 7 blocks and Sophia Diaz with 5 blocks.

In the second set, the Lady Panthers gained an early lead over Encampment. The Lady Tigers soon found their groove and took the lead as they took advantage of Saratoga’s errors. While the rest of the sets weren’t as high scoring as the first, it would work out that the team on the west side of the court would win the set. The second set went to Encampment at 25-20, the Lady Panthers took the third set 25-14 and the Lady Tigers took the fourth set 25-21. In the fifth set, the west side of the court would not prove to be the advantageous one.

Saratoga took the final set with a score of 15-12, the final score coming at the graze of a net.

Jackson led the Lady Tigers in attacking against Saratoga with 18 kills. Jordan followed with 11 kills, Eckerley Pickett had 8 kills and Sami Anderson had 5 kills. Jordan was the leader in serving, with 3 aces against the Lady Panthers with Anderson and Regin Stewart both serving 2 aces.

For Encampment, digging was an all around team effort. Jordan hit the floor for a total of 24 digs, followed by Stewart with 19, Anderson with 18 and Jackson with 16. Savannah Fagan had 13 digs and Pickett had 11 digs.

For Saratoga, the leader in attacking was Makenna King with 15 kills and was followed by Josie Little with 10 kills, Herring with 9 kills and Diaz with 6 kills. Little was the leader in digging with 22 digs and was followed by Madison Johnson with 18 digs, King with 16 digs and Gillian Creed with 12 digs.

Following their loss in Saratoga, the Encampment Lady Tigers are 1-3 for the season and 0-3 in conference play. Encampment has two home games this weekend as they host the Rock River Lady Longhorns on September 22 at 5:15 p.m. and the Cokeville Lady Panthers (15-8, 2-0) on September 23rd at 10:00 a.m.

The Saratoga Lady Panthers are 7-4 for the season and 2-1 for the conference. For their homecoming week, Saratoga will host the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners on September 19 at 5 p.m. and the Cokeville Lady Panthers on September 23rd at 1:00 p.m.