Encampment Tigers headed to state tournament: Lady Tigers place third at regionals

For the first time in seven years, the Encampment Lady Tigers are headed to state.

“The girls played their best volleyball of the season at regionals, it is something we all strive for,” head coach Robin O’Leary said.

The Lady Tiger’s first match at the state tournament is 5 p.m. Thursday against Hulett, the No. 2 seed in the eastern conference. Hulett had an undefeated season until they played against Lingle in the eastern conference regionals. “None of the teams are going to be easy,” O’Leary said. “The biggest thing we have going for us is these girls take instruction from their coaches very well and make decision on their own when things don’t go as planned.”

O’Leary has faith the players will be successful at state. “They are wonderful people on and off the court and I admire them all for their ‘Never give up attitude’,” O’Leary said.

The Encampment Lady Tigers played their first match against Meeteese Friday morning and won three of four games.

“Against Meeteetse we had a specific game plan going in. We knew we had to stop their middle hitter,” O’Leary said.

The team worked on their double blocks in the middle for their first game, O’Leary said. The team also knew where the open spots were going to be on the floor. O’Leary said the girls worked on getting the ball to those places all week.

“When we stepped on the floor, they were ready to play,” O’Leary said. “I am impressed that our young team handled the pressure as well as they did.”

Friday night, the Lady Tigers went up against the Cokeville Panthers. The Panthers went on to place first in regionals. Cokeville was the No. 1 seed going into regionals, but the Tigers made them earn their win.

“We definitely played them better at regionals than we did during the season,” O’Leary said.

“I could not be happier with their performance, we played them hard. They (Cokeville) had to to fight to win those games,” O’Leary said after the match against Cokeville.

Cokeville has an undefeated record, but the Lady Tigers managed to score 20 points the first two games and 17 points the third game.

“Cokeville’s defense is quick, so it was harder for our hitters to get points, but they still managed to put it away,” O’Leary said.

When the Lady Tigers played Cokeville, Oct. 12, the highest score the Tigers had was 18.

The Lady Tigers played Farson-Eden Saturday morning. It was a team they had beat three times during conference play. This was the crucial game for the ladies, it would determine whether they went to state or not.

“They are a scrappy team and wanted to win as much as we did,” O’Leary said. “It is sad to have to play someone from your own conference for a lose-out game, but you still want to win it and we did.”

For the six starters on the Lady Tiger’s team, this would be their third game in two days.

“We don’t sub regularly like some of the other teams do. Our starting six play the whole game,” O’Leary said.

Farson-Eden rotated four players in and out of the game, with only one sub going in for the Tigers.

Encampment dominated Farson-Eden in the first match with a win of 25 to 16. In the second match, the Tigers lost because of a technicality. The score was 24 to 25, with Farson-Eden leading, when the rotation of the Tigers was questioned. Farson-Eden was awarded the winning point.

The Lady Tigers did not let the loss deter them and beat Farson-Eden 25 to 16 in the third game.

“I knew we had the potential to beat them,” sophomore Alyssa Barkhurst said. “We just had to find the moment and bring it back.”

The Tigers won the fourth game 25-20, which earned them their trip to state.

“It is great that this is the team that is going to state. This is the best team we have had,” senior Kaylyn Wessel said.

Wessel said she is “super-excited” about going to state for her final volleyball year.

Saturday afternoon, the Lady Tigers played against Burlington, the only team for the northwest conference to make it into the finals rounds of regionals. The final match was to compete for third or fourth place.

The Tigers had not played Burlington before, but freshman McKenzie Powell said they had had looked at their scores and knew what kind of team they were.

Wessel said they were pretty hopeful they would beat Burlington. The Lady Tigers won against Burlington in five games and earned third place at regionals.

The Lady Tigers won the second and fourth game, and the score was tied through most of the fifth game, when the Tigers scored the winning point.

Sophomore Randa Sorensen, a junior varsity player, said she was praying “really hard” for her team to take the win.

The Lady Tigers earned their third place seed by two points.

O’Leary said she knew the girls were tired and would not have been disappointed if they had placed fourth.

“They dug as deep as they could for the fourth and fifth games and stayed aggressive to get the win.” You can’t play safe against good teams and expect success. You have to go for the aggressive point and they did,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary credited the team on the bench for their support. “Our team on the bench was amazing, especially during this game. … They talked loud for the six girls on the floor when they got tired and pushed them along to the win.”

Fans from Encampment School were at regionals to cheer on the Lady Tigers, which O’Leary said helped them to meet their second goal of going to state. The first goal was to avoid a pigtail game. Their final goal is to win state, O’Leary said. Winning the volleyball state championship hasn’t been done by the Encampment Volleyball team since 1977.

Powell said the team is going to practice hard in preparation for state. Barkhurst said the team will play as one.

Senior Jennifer Morgan said they are going to unite and play as hard as they can.

All of the players expressed appreciation for the support they received this season.

 

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