Lovell and Rocky Mountain middle school athletes gear up for the volleyball season

With the start of a new school year comes the start of middle school sports, including the volleyball season for local middle school athletes.

Lovell Middle School not only has started practices, but they have been able to have games already this season. 

“The girls have been working so hard and learning a lot,” said Tiffany Anderson, Lovell’s eighth grade head coach. “The attitudes have been great, and they are all great teammates to each other.”

“The first couple weeks of practice we have worked a lot on the basic fundamentals,” noted seventh grade head coach Marci Durtsche. “My teams have worked hard and are learning the importance of being coachable.” 

Lovell athletes were able to kick off the season’s games with matches in Thermopolis last Friday. 

“The girls tried a new lineup they’ve never tried before and learned it well,” explained Anderson. “I’m very excited to see what the season has in store for these awesome girls.”

Despite struggling with serves, the eighth-grade teams were able to bounce back and go on to win all three sets in both the A team and B team games.

The seventh grade A team won their match against Thermopolis in two sets.

“We were able to set the ball up quite a few times and really work together as a team,” said Durtsche. “I was really impressed because it was the first time they had ever really played together.”

The B team for the seventh graders lost their first set but came back to win the second set. Despite their efforts, they fell to the Bobcats in the third set 17-15.

Rocky volleyball coach Lacey Bassett explained that the team has the most girls they have had out in a while with four eighth graders, 14 seventh graders and seven sixth graders.

“Our focus this year is on the things we can control – ACE: Attitude, communication and effort,” Bassett explained.

The Lady Grizz will kick off the competition part of their season tomorrow (Friday), hosting Burlington at 1 p.m., and they will host Thermopolis Saturday at 10 a.m. and Ten Sleep Tuesday at 5 p.m.

“Both are usually tough teams,” Bassett said of Burlington and Thermop, “but we hope they are ready for the Grizzlies, too. We know we have a lot to work on, but that just gives us something to strive for. We can’t wait to get on the court.”