Lady Panthers say goodbye to seniors

Although the Saratoga Lady Panthers (4-4, 12-11 overall) faced tough teams at regionals last weekend, head coach Shayley Love feels the season was a strong performance overall.

The netters faced off against the Big Horn Rams (6-2, 18-13 overall) first on Friday, ultimately losing against the team they were unfamiliar with (16-25, 14-25, 19-25). According to S. Love, the Lady Panthers could not really find their rhythm against their opponent. “For the most part, they did have a really good outside hitter and she just knew where to hit. She could really find our holes,” said S. Love.

Against the Rams, Kylie Theesfeld and Meredith Lincoln had 15 and 16 digs respectively. While Mati Love was a leader in assists once more with 15, the stats show that her teammates made an effort to assist as well with spread out efforts in setting the ball.

Later on Friday, the Lady Panthers returned to play Pine Bluffs (8-0, 15-10 overall) in a five-set match, fighting hard for a good game despite a second loss (21-25, 25-18, 18-25, 27-25, 11-15). “Our girls played really great … it could have gone either way I feel,” S. Love said, adding that the point that gave Pine Bluffs the game was a “total judgment call. I would have said it was out. They called it in.”

“I was really proud of them just because I felt like everybody played well,” S. Love continued. “There wasn’t one person that was a weak link or one person that stood out. It was just a good effort.”

Lincoln brought 12 kills to the game and Sierra Schutte brought 11. M. Love and Alicia Zaragoza respectively served 25 and 24 times successfully, grabbing five aces between them. Digging was truly a group effort with Theesfeld digging 24 times, Lincoln 27 times and M. Love 19.

“It was good to finish on a high note,” S. Love said. “It was definitely disappointing because we set our goal to hopefully get on the state floor, but like with anything, it can go either way.”

With these last games over, S. Love will be saying goodbye to some seniors that she has been working with for four years now. “This group especially, I felt like they were great leaders for us. They’ve just brought our team together,” S. Love said of the group that worked together well and “really clicked”—Theesfeld, Haley Soles, Schutte and M. Love. According to S. Love, all four of the seniors were somewhere in the top 15 of the conference stats. “I’ve never had that.”

“I’m definitely going to miss them next year but I felt like they made a great impact on the program and our upcoming juniors will do the same. I know they’ll step up and do their job too,” S. Love said.