Lady Cats volleyball season ends at regionals

The Lady Bobcat volleyball team ended their season at Regionals in Torrington last weekend after a pair of losses.

"Unfortunately, our varsity season did not end the way we wanted it to," said coach Shannon Hill, "but we can use our losses as a learning experience on the season."

The Lady Cats had their opening matches Friday against Torrington, who had home court advantage as well as the hometown crowd, and lost to the Lady Trailblazers 25-15, 25-19 and 25-10.

On Saturday, they needed a win against Wheatland to move on, however they lost to the Lady Bulldogs after winning the first match, 25-22.

They went on to lose the next three, 25-12, 25-11 and 25-14.

Hill said in both matches they just couldn't get anything going and as soon as they made a mistake, their play just spiraled out of control and they gave the momentum to the other team.

"Our girls have all of the tools and they were physically ready, we just weren't able to get over the mental parts of each of the matches," Hill said.

As a coach, Hill said she took this last weekend as a learning experince and has already started going over ways she can better prepare the team mentally for high stakes, high pressure situations.

"I know that the athletes took these losses to heart and already have been talking about how they can prepare better as an athlete for these types of matches," she said. "I am so proud of all our athletes, freshmen through seniors, for creating a program we can all be proud of.

"A huge positive from this season was that we proved to ourselves and to other teams that we an be competitive in 3A and that it's time to change our story.

"I want to thank every single athlete who showed up daily to practice and worked hard day in and day out for this program. The freshman and JV teams both showed huge growth in their abilities and knowledge of the sport.

"The varsity saw adversity and now we learn from it and move forward, and they still showed huge strides in their abilities and their beliefs in themselves.

"I can't than all of the atheletes enough for their dedication this year, and the parents for their support of our program. We will miss our two seniors, Kelly Johnson and Jaden Schierkolk greatly, and thank them for the lasting impression they have left on us all, but look forward to the growth and confidence we will all bring to the program next season."