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WORAND - The Worland-Thermopolis rivalry added another chapter Thursday night and in the end it was the Lady Warriors volleyball team coming out on top against the Lady Bobcats 3-0.

The Worland High School gymnasium was rocking as the WHS student section went back and forth with the Hot Spring County student section, cheering on their respective teams.

The Lady Warriors were victorious 3-0 (25-12, 25-13, 25-13) and looked sharp in executing their game plan.

"We had a ton of energy and I want to thank our fans. In my five years at Worland we've had great fans and we always love being home, but that was something else. If you're ranking on a scale of 0-5, a five being the best, they were at a six.

"A lot of those were our student-athletes, I saw swimmers and football players over there. It's just really cool to see the student-body and community support us like that. And Thermopolis bused kids over and I saw retired couples that didn't have any kids but just wanted to watch this match. On both ends it was a great crowd," said WHS volleyball coach Brittany Miller.

The score shows a rout but the Lady 'Cats fought on every point but could not find their rhythm as things went against them Thursday night.

"It didn't feel like we played terrible but I'd look at the score and we were down. It just came down to that we couldn't string any points together," said HSCHS volleyball coach Shannon Hill.

Part of the rhythm problems for the Lady 'Cats was at times one player being slightly off, and one of the strengths of this team is their cohesiveness and if one player is off it tends to pull the whole team out of sync.

"We need to have all six girls that are on the court, seven with our libero, in it and on. This team if there is one player off we can't function that way. Everyone needs to be on and we just weren't tonight, we definitely put the effort in, it just wasn't there. Some of our passes weren't great and this week we worked on quickening our offense but weren't able to run anything we worked on because our passes weren't there," said Hill.

Part of Thursday's struggles for Thermopolis could be due to how loud it was in the gym, as Hill explained that her hitters and setter had difficulty communicating, and this week Hill wanted her team to focus on speeding up their play.

"I felt they we were doing better but our setter couldn't hear anything and it was hard for her to hear what our outsides were calling. It was tough but for the most part there were things we did well we just have to put it all together," said Hill.

For the Lady Warriors the focus Thursday night was to improve while adding layers to their offensive attack.

"We really focused on the word improve and creating more offense. We hammered our girls about hitting cross, tooling block, hitting line getting more shots in their tool bank and they did that. Our hitters hit a lot of different ways and not just one way. They were more dimensional tonight and we've talked about keeping that confidence when we face Rawlins and being multi-dimensional athletes like that and to do that again against Rawlins will be big," said Miller.

The Lady Warriors reserves even contributed to the game, freshman Denali Jones recorded the game-point with a kill during Game 2.

"It was awesome that all 12 girls contributed tonight and just didn't get in the game but statistically got in the game. That's big for us and them to gain valuable varsity experience," said Miller.

The next opponent for the Lady Warriors will be No. 1-ranked Rawlins who will travel to Worland for a Thursday night match. Along with being another important 3A East – West division matchup, but more importantly Miller wants her team to play with the confidence and aggression she knows they're capable of.

"We talked about our hitters and having that confidence in our swing. Our serving we were aggressive in our jump-serve. Against a team like Rawlins we tend to be less confident and aggressive, but that were we need that aggression as well as the passion and confidence if we want to beat them. We were only three points away from Rawlins in two separate games and doing those details can close the gap.

"We just need to win the details and continue to be multi-dimensional on the front row. Keep doing well on serving and passing but with confidence. Also eliminating the runs and if they score no big deal, but we get back the next time," said Miller.

The Lady 'Cats will have to rebound quickly for Saturday's match against Rawlins which will also be their homecoming match as well. For Hill she wants to see her players reduce the errors that are costly against top-tier teams.

"I told them in the locker room it's not that we're playing bad and we're never going to win, but with these good teams we have to make sure that everyone is on and everyone is here. It's homecoming week and we can't be thinking about the dance. With Rawlins we have to keep the speed up and against Worland we dug out some hard hits, but we couldn't finish those off. So it's going to be about our speed, transition and finishing balls against Rawlins," said Hill.

The Lady 'Cats match against the Lady Outlaws will be at 2 p.m.