Lady Panthers secure No. 2 seed at regionals

The regular season for the Saratoga Lady Panthers has been one that has seen far more wins than losses, having been dealt only two conference losses by the Cokeville Lady Panthers and one non-conference loss by the 3A Mountain View Lady Buffaloes. Over the weekend, Saratoga added to their conference wins as they hosted the Encampment Lady Tigers (25-12, 25-20, 25-12) on Thursday evening and were hosted by the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (25-17, 25-20, 14-25, 25-22) on Friday evening.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Tigers

Along with hosting Encampment on Thursday night, the Lady Panthers also bid farewell to the senior players on the team. Shayley Love, head coach for the Lady Panthers, changed her normal starting line-up to allow all the seniors a chance to play on the home court one final time.

"My goal tonight was to get those seniors out there together and to see them play. In that first set, they came out with some fire. They were excited and I think they did a great job just meshing together," said Love.

That fire from the seniors put the Lady Panthers in a significant lead at the end of the first set as they ended it with a score of 25-12. Saratoga would bookend the game with a similar score in the third set, but in the second set the Lady Tigers were only 5 points away as it came to an end.

"We mixed it up a little bit in the second set and kind of got the second set slump, but we pulled through and we did what we needed to," Love said. "The third set, I know that they got us down a little bit, but I really feel like we started to get our consistency back."

Senior Taylor Bennett would lead the Lady Panthers in kills, entering the double digits with 11 total kills against Encampment. Fellow senior Aubrey Berger followed with 10 kills and seniors Makiyah Johnson and Jenna Dew each delt 5 kills to the Lady Tigers.

Berger served 2 aces against Encampment across 14 serves and maintained 100 percent successful serves. Lexi Herring followed Berger, also serving 2 aces across 27 serves with 100 percent successful serves.

In blocking, T. Bennett led with 5 solo blocks against the Lady Tigers. Johnson and freshman Whitney Bennett each had 2 assisted blocks.

Libero Tasia Daley kept digging against Encampment as she returned 15 attempted scores. Senior Kylee Conseen followed with 9 digs, Berger had 8 digs and Herring had 7 digs.

"These girls are really good about, when they are down, just pushing really hard to get back on top and I think that that's a huge thing," Love said. "Volleyball is just so mental. For them to be able to come back and just be able to push through that, I think that that's just a testament to their character."

Following their win against Encampment, the Lady Panthers prepared to face LSRV on their home court.

"Baggs always puts together a good program, they always peek about the right time. For us, tomorrow, it's about getting ourselves out there and being consistent and playing solid volleyball," said Love.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Rattlers

When Saratoga hosted the Lady Rattlers earlier in the season, they sent LSRV home with a loss in three sets. This time, the Lady Panthers would still be able to secure a win, but it would over four sets as LSRV would take the third set from them.

"They did take a set from us," Love said. "It seemed we just relaxed too much, but we refocused and finished with a win. Defensively, I felt we played sharper than we had in the last couple of weeks. It seemed we read hitters better and played a quicker, scrappier style of defense."

T. Bennett led the team in kills, again, this time with 17 kills against the Lady Rattlers. Following T. Bennett was Berger with 11 kills and Dew with 7 kills.

Herring served 3 aces against LSRV across 18 serves while Daley served 2 aces across 16 serves.

T. Bennett was also the lead blocker, as she had 3 solo blocks against the Lady Rattlers. 

Daley continued digging with 27 digs as the returned LSRV's attempts at scoring. Berger followed with 21 digs, T. Bennett had 14 digs, Herring had 13 digs and W. Bennett had 11 digs.

Following their win against the Lady Rattlers, Saratoga has secured a spot as the No. 2 seed at the 1A West Regional Tournament this weekend.

"As we head into regionals, we will focus on one team at a time, with the first being Dubois," said Love. "We'll look at some things we need to show down against them. We've played every team that will be at regionals this season, except Burlington, so we have a good idea of things we will need to prepare for after our first match."

As they head into regionals, Love is able to look back on the regular season with pride in her team.

"I'm just proud of them. This has been a fun season and it's hard when you have five seniors. I haven't had that number in a while, so a really special group for us. We're going to miss them a lot, but we wish them the best in these next few weeks," Love said.

The Saratoga Lady Panthers will play the Dubois Lady Rams at 10 a.m. on Nov. 1 at the Riverton Middle School for the first round in regionals.