Saratoga suffers homecoming losses

The Saratoga Lady Panthers are sitting at No. 4 in the 1A Southwest Conference—just ahead of Farson-Eden and Fort Washakie—following two tough losses during homecoming.

On Friday, Saratoga hosted the Southeast Lady Cyclones where they went 2-3 against the No. 1 team in the 1A Southeast. Then, on Saturday, the Lady Panthers hosted the Cokeville Lady Panthers where they were dealt a conference loss in three sets.

Saratoga vs. Southeast

On Friday, the Lady Panther saw moments of brilliance as they hosted Southeast in the Panther Den. The Lady Cyclones brought with them a season record of 20-4 and found it difficult to sweep Saratoga on their home court.

“The Southeast game was great competition,” said Head Coach Shayley Love. “I was proud of the way our girls brought energy and consistency to the game, especially after only having one game the last couple weeks.”

Southeast took the first set by 3 points, winning over the Lady Panthers 22-25. Saratoga fought back in the 2nd and 3rd sets, going 25-23 and 28-26. The Lady Cyclones, however, got their wind back for the final two sets as they went 13-25 and 7-15 against Saratoga.

Senior Josie Little led the Lady Panthers in attacking the net with 10 kills against Southeast. She was followed by Addie Collins and Maggie Elder, each of whom had 6 kills. Cassidy Herring followed with 5 kills.

Senior Madi Johnson led in serve with 4 aces served against the Lady Cyclones. Little followed with 2 aces while Gillian Creed and Collins each served 1 ace. Little was the lead digger, with 31 digs against Southeast and earning her 1,000th career dig during the match. Johnson followed with 14 digs and Elder had 10 digs.

Saratoga vs. Cokeville

Following their loss to the Lady Cyclones, Saratoga returned to the Panther Den on Saturday to host Cokeville, who have only one conference loss this season.

“I don’t feel like we played to our potential,” said Love. “We didn’t have the same energy from the day before and just didn’t move quick enough on the floor for the caliber of team Cokeville is.”

While Saratoga toughed it out in the 3rd set, 23-25, Cokeville secured significant leads against the hosting Lady Panthers. The 1st set went to Cokeville with a score of 17-25 and the 2nd set went 18-25 to the visiting Lady Panthers.

Attacking the net against Cokeville was a team effort, with a total of 23 kills for Saratoga. Collins led the purple-and-gold Lady Panthers with 7 kills and was followed by Little with 5 kills and Sophie Diaz with 4 kills.

Johnson was, again, the lead server with 4 aces served against Cokeville. Creed followed with 3 aces and Little served 1 ace. Little led in digging with a total of 20 digs against the visiting Lady Panthers. Johnson followed with 17 digs.

So far this season, Collins has led the Saratoga in attacking the net with 108 kills. Little follows with 98 kills and Herring has 73 kills. Johnson, meanwhile, leads in serving with 32 aces followed by Koya Roberts with 28 aces. Johnson also leads in digging this season with 310 digs, followed by Little with 231 digs.

Following their losses last week, the Saratoga Lady Panthers are 10-9-3 for the season and 3-4 for conference play.

The Lady Panthers have a week full of conference play. Saratoga will host the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers at 4:30 p.m. on October 24 and the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns at 10 a.m. on October 26. These are the final games before the 1A West Regional Tournament.