Lady Panthers' Season Ends at Regionals

The Saratoga Lady Panthers’ season came to an end last weekend as they went 0-2 at the 1A West Regional Tournament in Lander. While they may not be playing at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper, Head Coach Shayley Love is no less proud of her team.

“The regional tournament was one of the most competitive regional tournaments we have competed in,” said Love. “I felt like the girls truly competed with both Riverside and Dubois with tight matches.”

Despite ultimately being knocked out of the tournament, the Lady Panthers didn’t make it easy for either the Riverside Lady Rebels or the Dubois Lady Rams. In both matches, Saratoga kept scoring close and even took a set from both teams.

Saratoga vs. Riverside

The Lady Panthers went into the regional tournament as the No. 4 seed in the 1A Southwest after securing a win over the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns in a play-in match. This put them up against Riverside, who were ranked No. 1 in the 1A Northwest.

The first set went to the Lady Rebels as they dealt a 22-25 loss to Saratoga. The Lady Panthers struck back in the 2nd set with a score of 25-19 to tie the match 1-1. The 3rd set was one of the hardest for Saratoga as they fell 11-25 to the Lady Rebels. In the 4th set and final set, the Lady Panthers attempted to take another set with some of the closest scoring the entire match. Ultimately, they fell to Riverside with a final score of 24-26.

Freshman Addie Collins led the Lady Panthers in attacking the net with 9 kills. Seniors Allie Condict and Josie Little and junior Maggie Elder each had 3 kills against the Lady Rebels.

Junior Gillian Creed led in serving with 3 aces against Riverside. Collins, Little and senior Madi Johnson each served 1 ace. Little led in digs against the Lady Rebels with a total of 21, followed by Johnson with 17 digs and Creed with 13 digs.

Saratoga vs. Dubois

Going into the consolation bracket, the Lady Panthers took on the Dubois with results similar to their match against the Lady Rebels. In the 1st set, Saratoga started off the match with a 26-24 win over the Lady Rams. Try as they might, however, the Lady Panthers couldn’t make lightning strike two more times. The following three sets went to Dubois: 22-25, 19-25 and 24-26.

Against the Lady Rams, it was Cassidy Herring who led in attacking the net with 18 kills. Little followed with 8 kills and Collins had 7 kills. In serving, Elder delivered 4 aces against Dubois followed by Creed with 3 aces while Condict and Johnson served 2 aces. Little was, again, the lead digger with 28 digs followed by Johnson with 24 digs.

Moving Forward

With their two losses at the 1A West Regional Tournament, the Lady Panthers’ year comes to an end with a season record of 11-14-3 and a conference record of 3-7.

“I am proud of the girls for never giving up and fighting until the end of each match. This group of girls is one of the hardest working groups and they truly care about each other on this team,” said Love. “I attribute that to our senior leadership this season. We all want to be playing at the state tournament, but overall I felt like a lot of growth happened throughout the season.”

With that hard work and growth this season, Love is hoping it continues into next season even with the graduation of the senior leadership.

“My hope is that the foundation that has been established this season will continue as we head into next year.,” said Love. “There are a lot of talented underclassmen and if they continue to improve like they have, this will be a fun group to coach in the future.”