Lady Grizz battle opponents and setbacks in Wind River

Several issues can occur during a team’s season that can cause them to not be on their “A game,” and the Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzles volleyball team faced some of those last weekend at the Wind River Foothills Classic.

Not only did sickness plague multiple players on the squad, they also had injuries that forced shifting in their rotations.

“Even though we had lots of girls sick, we had a good tournament,” head coach Stephanie Ames said. “The girls executed most things well, but there are definitely some specific areas we will be focusing on this week.”

On Friday, the Lady Grizz opened the day by sweeping tournament host Wind River 21-14 and 21-17, then won both sets over Wyoming Indian, 21-6, 21-12.

The schedule on Saturday kept Rocky Mountain on the court for back-to-back-to-back games, leaving them little to no time to eat, rest or recuperate between matches.

The Lady Grizz began play on Saturday by splitting sets with Saratoga, dropping the first 21-17 then bouncing back to win the next, 21-15.

Dubois also battled Rocky Mountain close in both sets with the Lady Grizz coming out on top 21-18 in set one but Dubois taking a 21-19 win in set two.

In the final match, they were paired with the Tongue River Lady Eagles, who the team dropped a match to the weekend before in Cowley at the North Big Horn Invitational.

Tongue River again won both sets, 21-10 and 21-19, when the Lady Grizz had a player (Lauren Bassett) sustain an ankle injury that forced adjustments in their lineup mid-set.

No individual statistics from Wind River were available for this week’s story.

COMING UP

The Lady Grizz will face six strong 2A East opponents at the Big Horn Invitational this Friday and Saturday.

“We need to see a little more consistency, which usually comes with time and healthy players, but we’re going to try to speed up that process and get it before this weekend’s tournament in Big Horn,” Ames said. “We look forward to this weekend. The East is always tough, and it will be good seeing where we match up with them at this point of the year.”

Their busy schedule kicks off with four games on Friday against Big Horn at 9 a.m., Tongue River at 10:30 a.m., Pine Bluffs at 1:30 p.m. and Sundance at 4:30 p.m.

On Saturday, the Lady Grizz square off with Moorcroft at 9 a.m. then conclude with Wright at noon.

Rocky Mountain will still be using a modified rotation due to the injury, but Coach Ames feels optimistic about her team’s potential for a successful weekend with an otherwise healthy roster.

The JV teams will play the same opponents prior to the varsity in Big Horn.

The Lady Grizz JV and varsity travel to Powell on Tuesday for games against the Lady Panthers with matches at 4, 5 and 6 p.m.

OTHER GAMES

The Lady Grizzly junior varsity team also competed at the Wind River Foothills Classic, but no complete scores were submitted because they played for time.

Rocky Mountain’s freshman squad faced Powell at home on Tuesday evening, but no scores were submitted.