Lady Grizz roll to regional volleyball title in Lander
The Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzlies got to hoist a regional championship trophy for the second time in three years Saturday as they vanquished the Thermopolis Lady Bobcats in four sets to capture the 2A West Regional volleyball title in Lander.
The Lady Grizz plowed through the tournament. Coming in as the second seed from the Northwest, Rocky beat Wyoming Indian 3-0 Friday morning, defeated Southwest top seed Kemmerer 3-1 Friday evening and powered past Thermop in the championship game Saturday afternoon 3-1, giving Rocky a 9-2 record in sets played.
“We had a great tournament,” head coach Stephanie Ames said. “The girls have really come together to play their best ball. All the hard work during the season has started paying off. The girls are playing really solid ball right now, and it’s a joy to watch them.”
Rocky made quick work of Wyoming Indian 25-14, 25-9, 25-8 in Friday’s first-round match, showing they brought their “A” game to Lander.
“We always have to pay attention to Wyoming Indian,” Ames said. “They aren’t generally a strong volleyball team, but that can make it hard to play. The rhythm of the game can be tricky to adjust to as it is usually pretty slow. We talked a lot about it. We’ve played them before, and we knew what we needed to do.
“The girls were able to execute and took the match in three sets.”
Taking the court in the semifinal round Friday evening, Rocky stopped Kemmerer 25-16, 25-13, 15-25, 25-20.
“Kemmerer was first place out of the south,” Ames said. “We had seen them at a couple tournaments in the early season and played them in the Greybull tournament. You can’t really bank on what you see that early.
“We took the first set and the second set, then came into the third set and kind of lost our compass. I’m not sure if we got overly confident or if we just had a bad set, but we dropped it. The girls fired back up and we took the fourth 25-20. This put us into the championship and on to State, so it was a great win.”
Championship match
“We waited eagerly to see if we would get to play Greybull or Thermopolis,” Ames said of the championship game anticipation. “Ultimately, Thermopolis took that game, and we knew we would be battling it out with them once again.
“We beat them in both of our regular season games, our most recent being a home game with a sweep in three sets. That wasn’t a reason to overlook them at all. They are a great team, and beating a great team three times is a real chore.”
Thermopolis advanced to the title game by knocking off Big Piney 3-0 and Northwest top seed Greybull 3-0, so the Lady Bulldogs were hot coming into the championship game.
“Thermop had made some pretty significant position and personnel changes since we had seen them the week before, so it was little unknown as to what we’d be seeing,” Ames noted. “I think the girls were just so ready to beat them again. You could see the determination and spirit in them during warmup.
“We had a great crowd for the tournament, and during this game, a good portion of the Greybull volleyball team stayed and joined our fans to cheer the girls on -- pretty great character for them to do that after losing out in an upset.
“The gym was crowded and loud, just the way we like it.”
Thermopolis took a hard-fought first set 25-21, then Rocky bounced back to take the second 25-17.
“In the first set, we found ourselves in a deficit rather quickly,” Ames said. “The girls worked hard to close the gap up, and we finished that set with a four-point loss. We took the momentum that we were gaining at the end of that first set and started the second off hot. We were firing on all cylinders and played very well.
“As with the last week of regular season, the setters were able to set to all the hitters and spread around our attacks, which kept Thermopolis guessing. Consistent blocking set the Bobcats on their heels, and they essentially quit hitting at us for the most part during long stretches of the game. Their tipping could have tripped us up earlier in the season, but it proved fruitless this time as the girls have really tightened up their coverage.
“We took the second set and then didn’t look back. It was an absolute joy to see the girls work together so well and play as a solid team.”
Rocky won the third set 25-21 and closed out the match with a dominant 25-15 fourth-set win.
“The third set brought a hard-fought win at 25-21, but by the fourth set, the girls were playing like absolute champs,” Ames said. “The celebration was amazing. Those girls worked hard this season and didn’t let anything stand in their way. They truly peaked at the best time, and we’re so very proud of them. As a coaching staff we put it on them to pull themselves together and overcome, and they really have done it.
“The entire team played amazing, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Tarynn Schoening’s outstanding performance. She led our team with kills this weekend and made a huge impact on our games. She’s come on strong in the late season, and it’s making a big difference.”
Schoening, a senior, finished the weekend with 33 kills in the three matches, and junior Lauren Bassett hit for 24 kills, senior Brittly Boettcher 23, senior Shelby Wambeke 15, junior Keylee Christiansen eight and senior Elliahna Scheeler five.
Boettcher led the team with five aces, and Schoening served three, Christiansen two, Bassett and Wambeke one apiece.
Bassett and Scheeler rose for eight blocks apiece on the weekend, Boettcher and Wambeke four each, Schoening and Christiansen two apiece. Wambeke finished with 43 set assists, Christiansen 32.
Boettcher led the team with 43 digs, and Bassett added 32, Christiansen 29, Wambeke and Scheeler 25 each, junior Layla Gardner 13, Schoening 10, sophomore
Halle Grandalen two
and sophomore Kaysie Cooley 1.
State tournament
The Lady Grizz, as the number one seed out of the west, will open the state tournament today (Thursday) against east four seed Sundance at 1 p.m. at the Ford Wyoming Center. Sundance went 2-2 at the East Regional, falling to Big Horn 3-0, eliminating Wright 3-0, advancing to State with a 3-0 win over Moorcroft and falling to Pine Bluffs in the third-place game, 3-2.
If the Grizzlies win, they will play the winner of Tongue River and Shoshoni Friday at 4:30 p.m., and if they are upset by Sundance, they will play the TR-Shoshoni loser Friday at 1 p.m.
“We are excited to get to Casper and get some more winning done,” Ames said. “We have Sundance first and will be preparing for that this week.”