FLAWLESS VICTORY

WORLAND – The weekend could not have gone any better for the Lady Warriors.

After splitting matches at the Douglas Invite to open the season, Worland went 4-0 over the weekend and never dropped a single game as it won the Border Wars Invitational in Cody.

Pitted against various teams from Montana, the Lady Warriors were unmatched on the court and seemed be clicking well early on.

"In volleyball it's very easy to play at the level of competition, it's hard to play above that. But our girls played above the whole weekend and were able to capitalize on every game," Worland volleyball coach Brittany Miller said Monday. "We were able to get in a lot of JV players and even with them coming in, we didn't lower our level of play."

Friday, the Lady Warriors opened with a sweep of Laurel, Montana – beating their opponent 25-13, 25-15, 25-12. They followed with another strong performance, beating Sidney, Montana in straight games 25-10, 25-18, 25-12.

Saturday went much the same for Worland, beating Glendive, Montana 3-0 (25-12, 25-15, 25-17) and Hardin, Montana (25-18, 25-14, 25-8) to cap off an undefeated weekend.

There were moments the Lady Warriors struggled communicating with each other, but the good outweighed the bad immensely.

And the girls should develop more chemistry once they get enough court time together.

Once that happens, they should see the mistakes start to occur less often.

"We still have not had a lot of court time together with this team. But for the lack of court time they have together, they're playing extremely well," said Miller. "I felt Hardin was going to be a really tough team to play on day two and they beat them in the third game 25-8.

"Yeah, we have a long way to go. But it was a pretty impressive weekend for preseason."

It may not have been against quite the level of competition Worland will see in regular season play, but it certainly provided a boost to the confidence level of the Lady Warriors.

"I think our girls know they have a lot of talent and potential. So winning a tournament like that and being the best out of all the Montana and Wyoming schools for a weekend does help build a foundation of confidence which is really important on the volleyball court," Miller said. "But at the same time we know this weekend is going to be extremely tough and we need to get better this week."

This weekend will provide the toughest test yet as the Lady Warriors head to Rawlins where they will see mostly 3A teams.

There, they will be able to see where they stack up against the rest of the state so far this season.

"It'll provide a pretty good picture of where we're at and where we need to finish by regionals," said Miller of the tournament.

The Lady Warriors will travel to Rawlins Friday morning for the tournament which continues through Saturday afternoon.