Saratoga tastes tough competition

The Saratoga Lady Panthers faced some tough, upper conference competition early in their season as they traveled to Rock Springs on September 5. While the Lady Panthers went 0-2 against the Rawlins Lady Outlaws and the Natrona County Lady Mustangs, Head Coach Shayley Love was happy with the output of her netters.

“I felt like the weekend went pretty well. We really thought we were playing a round robin and were going to have two more games but it ended up being two games total,” said Love. “Definitely tough competition for us playing a 3A and 4A Team.”

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Outlaws

The first game of the weekend was against 3A Rawlins, who currently sits at the top of their own conference with a 6-0 record early in the season. Despite the differences in conference, Saratoga took to the court and attempted to buck the Lady Outlaws. The first set, however, saw the Lady Panthers narrowly miss sinking their claws into Rawlins with a score of 20-25. The second set saw a bit more of a divide as Saratoga fell 16-25.

Against the Lady Outlaws, sophomore Whitney Bennett, senior Savannah Wells and sophomore Olivia Everret all had 2 kills while senior Lexi Herring and sophomore Shelby Knotwell each had 1 kill.

Wells, Herring and senior Tasia Daley each served 1 ace against Rawlins.

Bennett led in digging against the Lady Outlaws with 7 digs. Wells, Daley and Herring each had 6 digs.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Mustangs

After a close game with Rawlins, the second game of the day for the Lady Panthers was against 4A Natrona County. The Lady Mustangs are sitting second in their own conference with a 3-3 record. The higher conference team forced the Lady Panthers to put up a fight with a score of 13-25 in the first set and 11-25 in the second set.

Saratoga still managed to get some scratches on the Lady Mustangs, however, as Bennett had 4 kills against Natrona County. Wells followed with 3 kills and senior Sam Duke had 1 kill. Knotwell, meanwhile, served 2 aces against the Lady Mustangs and Daley served 1 ace.

Daley did her fair share of digging on the court with a total of 12 digs against Natrona County. Duke followed with 4 digs, Bennett had 3 digs, and Wells and Herring each had 2 digs.

“I was proud of the girls for never giving up and continuing to compete through the whole match,” Love said. “Both programs are solid programs that are contenders at the state tournament each year with Rawlins being the state champs last year and not losing many girls. It’s good for us to play a different tempo and to see what things we need to work on to continue getting better each week. Overall, I was happy with how they played.”

The Lady Panthers get little rest this week as they host three games with two of them against conference rivals. On September 10, Saratoga will host the Rock River Lady Longhorns. On September 11, the Lady Panthers will host the Encampment Lady Tigers (2-1, 0-0) and, on September 12, they will host the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns (2-1, 0-0).