Lady Panthers regain footing

Despite their two conference losses the week before, the Saratoga Lady Panthers wasted no time jumping back onto the court and securing two wins; one of them a conference win.

The Saratoga netters hit the road last week where they faced the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns (5-2, 2-0) on Thursday and were hosted by the Guernsey-Sunrise Lady Vikings on Saturday. The conference win is a much needed boost for the Lady Panthers as they prepare for another week of conference play.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Pronghorns

“Traveling to Farson we had a good idea of what they still had from last year, but with a new coach we knew we may have to figure things out as we go. Our girls found some consistency and played very solid competition. I felt overall our serve receive was better and we really stepped up our defense,” said Shayley Love, head coach of the Lady Panthers. “Getting some touches and a couple of blocks helped tremendously. Our back row did a great job of communicating and getting our back row covered defensively, which allowed us to play an effective offensive game as well.  We also flowed better as a team, we encouraged and worked very well together on the floor.”

The Lady Panthers attacked the net against Farson-Eden a number of times and sophomore Whitney Bennett led with 11 kills. Senior Savannah Wells followed with 6 kills and sophomore Oliva Everett had 5 kills.

In serving, Wells and senior Sam Duke each served 3 aces against the Lady Pronghorns. Senior Lexi Herring, sophomore Shelby Knotwell and senior Tasia Daley each served 1 ace.

Daley hit the floor a number of times as she led the Lady Panthers with 18 digs against Farson-Eden. Wells followed with 12 digs, Duke had 10 digs, Bennett had 9 digs and Herring had 8 digs.

Saratoga was successful across all three sets as they went 25-21, 25-16 and 25-19 against the Lady Pronghorns.

Lady Panthers vs.

Lady Vikings

Following their win in Farson-Eden, Saratoga was hosted by the Lady Vikings, who are 3-7 for the season and 1-3 in their conference. The Lady Panthers wasted no time in sinking their claws into Guernsey-Sunrise. Though the Lady Vikings kept the score close in the first set, the other two saw Saratoga lead by double digits as they went 25-21, 25-10 and 25-11.

“Traveling over to Guernsey we were aware they may be a scrappy team,” Love said.

Everett led the team in attacking the net as she had 7 kills against Guernsey-Sunrise. Bennett followed with 6 kills and Daley had 3 kills.

Herring served 9 aces against the Lady Vikings and was followed by Bennett with 4 aces. Both Herring and Bennett managed 100 percent in their serves with Herring serving 29 times and Bennett serving 13 times. Everett also served 4 aces against Guernsey-Sunrise.

Knotwell and Herring each led the team defensively as they both had 11 digs against the Lady Vikings. Daley and Everett followed with 8 digs and Bennett had 5 digs.

“We knew we would be missing a player for this game so we changed things up and used Tasia all the way around.  It was fun to see her get some front row play and give some others an opportunity to get more experience in the back row. We played very well all the way around and were able to put some things into our offense to speed things up,” said Love. “This was a great game to work on that and prepare us for some upcoming conference matches. I felt each girl contributed to our successes last week and it was fun to see them gel on the floor.”

Following their two wins last week, the Lady Panthers are now 5-5 for the season and 2-2 in conference play. This week will see more conference play as they host the Lady Pronghorns for a rematch and are hosted by their conference and Valley rivals, the Encampment Lady Tigers (3-5, 0-3).

The Lady Panthers will face-off against the Farson-Eden Lady Pronghorns at 4:30 p.m. on October 1. Saratoga will then be hosted by the Lady Tigers at 4 p.m. on October 2 in Encampment.