The Saratoga Sun -

Mike Armstrong

by Joshua Wood The Encampment Lady Tigers had only one game last week and had their first taste of defeat as they were hosted by the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners. Both teams are at the top of their respective conferences, with Encampment sitting 2-1 in the 1A Southwest Conference and HEM sitting 4-1 in the 1A Southeast Conference. "We did put up a good fight the first two sets," said Robin Brown, head coach of the Lady Tigers. "We were short players, so we had girls playing in positions that were fairly new to them but they all worked really hard to not let that get in the way." In a battle that lasted three sets, Encampment kept the score very close in the first two sets going 22-25 in the first set and 21-25 in the second set. The third set, however, saw HEM undermine the fight put up by the Lady Tigers as the third set ended with a score of 9-25. Sophomore Cora Schroeder kept her position as the lead killer among the Encampment netters with 10 kills against the Lady Miners. Following Schroeder was senior Grace Tieszen with 6 kills. Junior Katie Dugger, senior Shiann Finney, senior Lizzi James and sophomore Peyton Munroe each had 3 kills. Along with a high number of kills, Schroeder also led the team with 4 aces against HEM. James served 2 aces against the Lady Miners and Finney and Munroe each served 1 ace. While Dugger did not serve any aces, she did have 100 percent serve success across 9 serves. Munroe was the lead digger for the Lady Tigers as she clawed out 13 attempts at an HEM score. Dugger had 7 digs, Tieszen had 6 digs, Schroeder had 4 digs, and James and Finney each had 3 digs. "I was proud of the hustle and grit that they showed throughout the match," Brown said. "We were able to see our areas of strengths with defense and some areas that we will work to tackle this week before we move into conference play." This week, the Lady Tigers will travel northward to face their Valley and conference rivals, the Saratoga Lady Panthers (1-3) on September 11. The next day, September 12, Encampment will host conference rivals the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Ratters (1-1) in Tiger Nation.