The Lady Panther volleyball team brought their A game to the pigtail match against Lusk last Monday and showed what they are capable of.
Even with a slow start, Saratoga took the Lady Tigers in four sets 10-25, 27-25, 25-16 and 25-22. Coach Shayley Love said the girls brought lots of energy and played a solid match.
The Lady Panthers served well and had a total of 10 aces during the match. The defense was also strong with 25 kills, 10 blocks and 59 digs.
The win against Lusk put the Lady Panthers into the regional tournament where they faced No. 1 seed Wright on Friday.
Wright has a strong team with tall girls that like to hit and block, according to Love. She also said they have a scrappy libero.
Wright took down the Lady Panthers in three sets, 10-25, 17-25 and 13-25. Even with Meredith Lincoln breaking out a jump serve and Haley Soles playing well Saratoga could not find a weakness in Wright. Love said the score of the third set is not a good indication of how the girls played. Wright just had good hitters and a strong blocker Love said. “Wright is just a big, powerful team.”
In the loser out game Saratoga faced the Tongue River Lady Eagles on Friday.
Love said the teams are very comparable in size and play in a similar style. The Lady Panthers took the first set 25-21, but Tongue River came back to win the last three sets 17-25, 19-25, 13-25. Love said she felt her girls could have won the game but they seemed to lack the energy needed in the last game of their season.
Looking forward, Love said “We did end up getting to regionals and I am proud of them for that. Now we have to regroup and focus on the next season.”
Love said she is proud of the girls for playing as a team all season.
Even with four seniors leaving the roster, Love has a young team that she will be able to grow and develop next season and she said she looks forward to that.
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