Playing with heart

Following a duo of conference losses the week before, the Encampment Lady Tigers used last week to better perfect their game before returning to conference play. 

The Lady Tigers faced two teams from the 1A Southeast Conference as Encampment hosted the Hanna, Elk Mountain, Medicine Bow (HEM) Lady Miners on Thursday (0-3) and the Rock River Lady Longhorns (3-2) on Saturday.

Lady Tigers vs. Lady Miners

While the Lady Miners struggled through their season last year, this year they are sitting at the top of the 1A Southeast Conference going 12-2 for the season and 5-0 in conference play. The last time the Lady Tigers and HEM faced off, it was on the Lady Miners' home court and saw Encampment go 0-3. 

Though the Lady Tigers went 0-3 against HEM this time as well, there was improvement seen from the last match between the two teams. Throughout the three sets, in fact, Encampment would find themselves leading at multiple times.

"The girls worked hard throughout the week on passing and serving. This game showed their hard work in those areas as we had an improved team pass rating and a huge improvement with our serving percentages," said Robin Brown, head coach of the Lady Tigers. "We still struggle a little bit with consistency with our hitting and being able to score several points in a row. Hanna has a really tough team and they don't back down and are aggressive every play. Even though the score didn't show it, the girls improved with the focus skills. I'm proud of them for staying focused and working hard."

Ultimately, however, the Lady Tigers would go 17-25, 22-25 and 15-25.

Sophomore Cora Schroeder attacked the net for 11 kills. Senior Grace Tieszen followed with 6 kills while senior Shiann Finney and sophomore Allison Bromley each had 5 kills and senior Lizzi James had 4 kills.

Schroeder also led in serves with 3 aces. Bromley served 2 aces and James served 1 ace. James also had 100 percent serve success across 15 serves.

Tieszen took to the floor to lead in digging with 12 digs against HEM and was followed by Schroeder with 9 digs, Bromley with 8 digs, Finney with 7 digs, sophomore Peyton Munroe with 6 digs and James with 5 digs.

Lady Tigers vs. Lady Longhorns

Despite the loss on Thursday to the Lady Miners, Encampment gathered themselves to host Rock River on Saturday. The Lady Longhorns sit two spots below HEM, having gone 3-6 for the season and 3-3 for conference play. 

The Lady Tigers wasted no time getting their claws into the court during the first two sets as they dispatched Rock River. The following two sets, however, saw the Lady Longhorns put their heads down and defeat Encampment. In the 5th set, the Lady Tigers regained their footing and won the match 3-2.

"What a roller coaster," Brown said. "We were missing several girls for all or part of this match which made things a little more difficult. The girls knew we would have to communicate more than normal in order to work through the change in our lineup. It came down to pulling ourselves out of the slump and playing with heart."

Encampment went 25-23, 25-21, 11-25, 15-25 and 15-4.

"We didn't play our best volleyball fundamentally, but the girls came out in the 1st and 5th sets and showed their competitiveness and played for their team," said Brown. "They were all very selfless and it paid off."

Schroeder, again, led in attacking the net with 12 kills against Rock River and was followed by Bromley with 7 kills, James with 6 kills and Tieszen with 5 kills. Schroeder also led in serving with 8 aces against the Lady Longhorns. Junior Katie Dugger served 4 aces and Tieszen served 3 aces. Both Dugger and Tieszen saw 100 percent serve success with Dugger serving 13 times and Tiesen serving 10 times.

Tieszen and Schroeder tied for lead digger against Rock River, with the two Lady Tigers having 9 digs each. James followed with 6 digs and Bromley had 5 digs.

Following this past week, Encampment is 3-5 for the season and 0-3 for conference play.

They'll have only one conference game this week as they host their conference and Valley rivals, the Saratoga Lady Panthers (4-5, 1-2), for a rematch on October 2 at 4 p.m.