By Alex Kuhn
Sports Editor
Lady Warriors head to Border Wars this weekend
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COURTESY/Katherine Stuckey
The Worland High School Lady Warrior freshman pose together after winning the freshman tournament in Powell over the weekend. Pictured are, left to right, McKenna Mickelson, Ajiah Montoya, Ashley Schriber, Denali Jones, Darla Hernandez, Tymberlynn Crippen, Katie Baumstarck, Payton Julson, Logan Yule, Lily Lungren and Ashlie Stockwell.
WORLAND - With the real games about to start the Worland Lady Warrior volleyball team had a strong preseason showing in Riverton and Powell over the weekend. The Lady Warriors varsity team took third at the Riverton tournament, the JV team placed second in theirs and the freshman team won the whole thing in Powell.
"Overall it was a good weekend with a new team," said WHS volleyball coach Brittany Miller. "We finished 6-1 and took third place, our JV went 6-1 and finished second and our freshmen won their tournament."
The 2017 Lady Warriors will have some new faces in the starting lineup this season as the graduation of the last year's senior class left some rotation spots open. Naturally, some nerves were present during the Riverton tournament but with senior leadership provided by Saige Jones, Jaycee Page, Olivia Scheuerman and Casey Wassum, those nerves were settled by the end.
"I think they had the jitters too and the girls stepping onto the court for the first time were jittery and nervous. They settled down and started building chemistry and trusting each other. I think they were all optimistic leaving the weekend afterwards," said Miller.
As for their on-court play, the Lady Warriors showed Miller the work this offseason paid off as well as showing plenty of mental fortitude. On Day One Worland beat Lander 2-0 (21-13, 21-12), Big Piney 2-0 (21-18, 21-20), Pinedale 2-0 (21-15, 21-19) and Wind River 2-0 (21-5, 21-9).
"It's a brand new lineup and this summer we worked really hard on our serve, serve/receive game. Our girls, day one, serve received pass almost flawlessly and only had three missed serves all day. It was great to see that carry over and that's how they won the pool and I credit their serving and passing," said Miller.
Day Two saw Worland splitting their matches, falling to Riverton 1-2 (18-21, 21-14, 7-15) and defeating Big Piney 2-0 (21-10, 21-20).
Added Miller, "Day Two our girls were extremely scrappy. We lost to Riverton in three in a hard fought battle in the semifinals. We definitely showed our weaknesses but those are something we'll work on in practice. They had a huge bounce to take third and every time they were in a crunch situation they came through. They were 20-20 twice over the weekend and there's not cap so the first one to 21 wins and both times in that situation they were mentally tougher and won."
With the Riverton tournament behind them the Lady Warriors will turn their focus to the Border Wars in Cody on Friday and Saturday. At the Border Wars Worland will see some strong Montana competition that will be the equivalent to 3A and 4A teams here in Wyoming.
"We're going to work hard in transition. In Riverton we were really scrappy but we weren't turning our amazing digs into kills. If we can convert more kills of our scrappiness, I feel like they will have a great weekend," said Miller.
