Lady Panthers feel bite of LSRV

The Saratoga Lady Panthers (1-1) had their first match loss of the season against the LIttle Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (1-0) in Baggs Thursday night.

The Lady Rattlers were the runner-up champions in 2023 and have always been a formidable team in the 1A Southwest Conference.

The Lady Panthers managed to hold their own during the sets. While the scores didn’t show the heart the Lady Panthers put into the game — with scores of 16-25, 19-25 and 16-25 — it did show their determination to keep up with a strong conference team.

“The game at LSRV was not the type of team I know we are,” said Head Coach Shayley Love.

She felt the team had a lot of nerves and couldn’t get going on the court. Love looks forward to improving and seeing how they do later in the season against LSRV.

In the first set, the Lady Rattlers outscored the Lady Panthers with 4 unanswered points. But when the Lady Panthers won a serve after 4 points, they quickly tied the game.

With a block by Lady Panther Cassidy Herring, a 6’4” junior, and a kill by senior Josie Little, the team held its own.

In the first time out, the team was down 12-19, but they managed to keep up point for point to gain momentum in the middle of the set with the ending score 16-25.

The Lady Panthers found their stride in the second set and played a tight game, keeping the score tied for the first 11 points. The Lady Rattlers pulled ahead, and the score was 14-17 during the time-out. Not to be deterred, the Lady Panthers dug deep and scored 5 more points before losing to the Lady Rattlers.

The third set started slow for the Lady Panthers with a score of 4-11 at the first time out.

Whatever was said to the ladies during the time out motivated them because they fought back and closed in on the Lady Rattlers 9-11. After the Lady Panthers met their coach with a second time-out, the girls were screaming with excitement.

The Lady Panthers pulled ahead 13-12 with a block by Herring. Errors plagued both teams, but the Lady Panthers worked to keep the Lady Rattlers on their toes with a kill by senior Sophie Diaz and the score was at 14-15 before the Lady Rattlers took the lead and won the third set 16-25.

Senior Allie Condict garnered the team 4 points with her 100% serving aces, while Little had a 92.9 percentage earning 10 points in serving aces. Herring aced three times with her serving percentage at 87.5% while Madi Johnson, a senior, scored 2 points for the team with a 75% serving percentage. Freshman Addie Collins and senior Sophie Diaz led the team with 6 kills each.

Friday, the Lady Panthers traveled to Pavilion to play in the Foothills Classic, a 2A Conference Tournament. Two other 1A teams competed in the Classic with the Lady Panthers matched up to 2A teams.

The first match against 2A Southwest Wyoming Indian Lady Chiefs was a win for the Lady Panthers with a score of 21-18 and 21-12.

Condict and Little led the team in serving aces with 2 and 4 points, respectively. Both girls had a 100% serving percentage.Collins had 5 kills to score for the team, with Little at 4 kills. The team had a total of 18 kills in the sets against the Lady Chiefs.

Diaz led with her blocks against the Lady Chiefs, while Libero Madi Johnson had 15 digs during the match. Condict had 11 assists with Johnson getting 10 returns.

Following the match against the Lady Chiefs, the Lady Panthers played Tongue River.

The first set was a very good game, Coach Love said. The Lady Panthers beat the 2A East division Tongue River Lady Eagles 22-20. The second set the Lady Eagles squeezed past the Lady Panthers 17-21.

Sophomore Maggie Elder led the team with 3 kills and Condict dug for 8 digs and 4 assists.

Saturday morning the Lady Panthers played the Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzlies and split the match with one win 21-17 and one loss 15-21. The Lady Grizzlies are also a 2A team in the northwest division.

Little assassinated the Lady Grizzlies with four kills while Collins had two aces. Diaz had four solo blocks with Little leading in digs at eight. Condict performed eleven assists. Little was also the leader in returns at eight.

Love said she was really impressed with Josie Little as an all around player. Condict did a nice job of being more consistent as a setter and finding our hitters. Diaz blocking was good and Love wants to concentrate on her hitting skills.

Collins has really stepped up as an underclassman, she does some really great things at the net for us, Love said.

Herring has been a huge wall for the team in the front row and Love is loving how much harder she is working in the front row.

Maggie Elder has switched to a new position and she does some really great things as an outside hitter. Love is enjoying her coachable attitude.

“Overall, the whole team brought a lot of energy and I liked the improvements,” Love said. “The extra competition from the other 2A teams helped us elevate our level of competitiveness and grow overall as a team.”

The Lady Panthers will co-host the 1A Volleyball Jamboree in Saratoga This Friday and Saturday.

“I am really excited for the Jamboree this weekend,” Love said. “We are going to see some really good 1A teams and it is going to give us an idea of the competition we will be up against as the season progresses.”

Love believes her team is prepared and, with another week of practice and the matches this past weekend, the team will be able to focus on improvements going into the tournament.

Saratoga is scheduled to compete against Riverside at 2 pm and Hulett at 5 pm Friday on Court 1 in Saratoga. The Junior Varsity team plays against Guernsey at 1 pm Friday on Court 2 in Saratoga.

Saturday the Lady Panthers go up against Ft. Washakie at noon, Southeast at 2 pm and Kaycee at 3 pm. The match against Southeast will be in Court 2, with all others in Court 1.

Saratoga’s Junior Varsity plays Rock River at 4 pm in Court 1.

September 17 is the valley match between Saratoga and Encampment at Encampment with games beginning at 5 pm.