Lady Panthers at No. 2 in conference

As the regular volleyball season begins to come to a close, the Saratoga Lady Panthers hosted two conference rivals as part of their homecoming week and went 1-1.

On Thursday, the Lady Panthers hosted the Little Snake River Valley (LSRV) Lady Rattlers (7-7, 2-4) for a win across five sets. Saratoga then hosted the Cokeville Lady Panthers (11-7-1, 7-0) on Saturday for a homecoming heartbreaker as they went 0-3.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Rattlers

The Lady Panthers hosted the No. 4 ranked LSRV on October 15 for a back-and-forth match that saw the two teams play across five sets. The 1st set saw the Lady Rattlers sink their fangs into Saratoga with a score of 15-25. The Lady Panthers, however, roared back in the 2nd set to win 25-21. While LSRV took the 3rd set 22-25, Saratoga took the 4th and 5th set, 25-19 and 15-13, to de-fang the Lady Rattlers 3-2.

"We had a very competitive and fun match with them. The girls played well all the way around and controlled things we were doing. Our stats are an indicator how hard we worked for the win and how well we worked together to accomplish this," said Shayley Love, head coach of the Lady Panthers. "I'm very proud of the way the girls never gave up and continued to push when LSRV had the momentum."

Nearly all the Lady Panthers attacked the net against LSRV with sophomore Whitney Bennett leading the team with 18 kills. Freshman Mackenna King followed with 12 kills and senior Savannah Wells had 10 kills. Sophomore Oliva Everret had 6 kills, senior Lexi Herring had 5 kills, sophomore Shelby Knotwell had 3 kills and senior Sam Duke had 2 kills.

Wells and Herring led the team in serving with 3 aces each against the Lady Rattlers. Bennett followed with 2 aces and Duke had 1 ace. Senior and libero Tasia Daley was joined by Bennett in hitting the floor for 33 digs. Wells followed with 18 digs, Herring had 17 digs and Duke had 14 digs.

Lady Panthers vs. Lady Panthers

For their final home game of the season, the No. 2 Lady Panthers hosted the No. 1 Lady Panthers. Cokeville was hosted by the Panther Den following a win over the Encampment Lady Tigers. Despite Saratoga's efforts, the visiting Lady Panthers would leave the Valley with two conference wins.

The 1st set saw both teams begin by going point-for-point, but Cokeville would waste little time in pushing ahead to win 11-25. The 2nd and 3rd sets were similar, as Saratoga would go back-and-forth in the beginning of the sets only for Cokeville to push ahead. The visiting Lady Panthers would take the 2nd set 14-25 and the 3rd set 16-25.

"Cokeville was a game we struggled to get going in," Love said. "I'm not sure if it was a long homecoming week or we were just not mentally prepared to play. We did some things well as far as serving and controlling our hits, but our serve receive and defense at times were weaker than they normally are."

Bennett attacked the net for a total of 5 kills and was followed by King and Everett with 4 kills. Wells attacked the net for 2 kills and Daley and Duke each had 1 kill against Cokeville. In serving, Duke and Wells each served 1 ace against Cokeville.

Leading the hosting Lady Panthers in digging, Daley had 16 digs and was followed by Wells with 12 digs. Herring and Duke each had 6 digs, Bennett had 5 digs, and Everett and King each had 2 digs.

"As we head into this final regular season week our goal is consistency and capitalizing on our strengths to be prepared for the final stretch of our season," said Love.

Following their 1-1- weekend against two conference foes, the Saratoga Lady Panthers are sitting at No. 2 in the 1A Southwest Conference. Saratoga is 8-8 for the season and 4-4 in conference play. The Lady Panthers have one more game before the regional tournament begins as they travel to Lusk to face the 2A Southeast Niobrara County Lady Tigers.

The Lady Panthers will be hosted by Niobrara County at 1 p.m. on October 23rd.