The Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzlies are picking up steam after a road trip that brought a hard-fought win over Shoshoni Friday and a mixed bag of ups and downs at the Bobcat Tourney in Thermopolis Saturday. The team is looking forward to a homecoming weekend packed with three back-to-back home bouts.


Coach Carol McMillin said strong hits and teamwork propelled the Griz to a victory in five games Friday against Shoshoni Friday, 22-25, 25-21, 25-11, 23-25 and 17-15.


“It was a good game,” she said. “Kills were strong. The girls had good game composure and stuck with it throughout the match.”


The varsity netters were playing without outside hitter Eliza Higgins, who suffered an ankle injury last week. McMillin said Leslie Blackburn stepped up and did a great job filling in for Higgins and Calli Ward was also moved to outside hitter to help out.


“I was pleased with the digging and passing Calli brought to the back,” she said.


Higgins is playing some this week and is expected to pick up more playing time as she heals. Sara Olsen was back on the roster this week after an injury and played in Shoshoni, McMillin said.


McMillin noted nice hits from mid-hitter Melissa Barnes and said the team’s defense was good overall with consistent digs and controlled passes.

The Griz continued their road trip and traveled to Thermop for the Bobcat Invitational Saturday. McMillin said the team looked a little slow and tired at the tourney after playing tough with Shoshoni the night before.


In Bobcat pool play, The Grizz came out a little slow against Cody and fell 12-21 and 19-21 to the Fillies. McMillin said the next game was “a little disappointing” as the Griz struggled to keep hits inbound and were run over by the Burlington Huskies 13-21 and 17-21. The Lady Griz then triumphed over the Thermop JV team 21-19 and 21-2.


The Griz were placed in bracket B and first faced the 3A Powell Panthers. Tough Panther hitters outplayed the Griz, McMillin said, but they kept it close at 13-25 and 14-25. The single loss eliminated Rocky Mountain from the tournament.


She said the most notable improvement this week was blocking.


“Their timing improved. They’re a little smarter on when to block and the angle they need to be at,” she said. 
Serving was consistent again this week and the team is working to put some more aggressive serves over the net, the coach said.

McMillin said the team is looking forward to a busy week and coming out on top of the next three games, mentioning the team beat Greybull and Burlington at the Big Horn Invitational and fell to Burlington at the Bobcat. She hopes for a repeat performance against Shoshoni.


“The enthusiasm after beating Shoshoni was very encouraging,” she said. “The girls are excited. Their will to win has started to surface. They got a taste of winning and I think they liked it.”


She said they are still making improvements, but they’ve become a pretty tight unit.


“They’ve found if they work together and support each other, it’s a benefit to their play,” she said.


The Grizzlies face Greybull in Byron today (Thursday) with games at 3, 4 and 5 p.m. The Griz host Burlington Friday with games at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30 p.m.; and host Shoshoni Saturday with JV action at noon and varsity at 1 p.m.


On Thursday and Friday, the junior class will sell Navajo tacos outside the gym for a fundraiser.


McMillin said the toughest teams in the conference look like Riverside and Thermop and the Griz have set their sights on what they need to do to beat the two teams at Regionals.


“Next time we meet Riverside or Thermop we’ll be ready to play tough,” McMillin said. “The only way to do that is to swing hard and pound it down.”