Lady Cats earn runner-up title at 2A Regionals

The Lady Cats varsity volleyball team competed at the 2A Regional Championships in Lander on November 1 and 2 last week and punched their ticket to the 2A State Championships in Casper this week.

On Friday, the Lady Cats played Big Piney – who had finished the regular season in second place in the 2A Southwest. Playing with determination and skill, the Lady Cats swept Big Piney in three games, winning 25-13, 25-20 and 25-15.

The Lady Big Piney Punchers defeated Wind River on Friday afternoon, and defeated Kemmerer on Saturday morning. Playing in the third place game on Saturday afternoon, the Punchers lost to Shoshoni, and finished regionals in fourth place. Big Piney will be the number 4 seed from the 2A West in the state championships. Shoshoni will be the number 3 seed.

Next up for the Lady Cats was the team from Greybull. The two teams had met up twice earlier in the season - with each team coming away with a win. Following up their outstanding performance against Big Piney earlier in the day, the Lady Cats swept Greybull in three games – 28-26, 25-21 and 25-17.

With those two wins, the Lady Cats were in to compete at state, no matter what might transpire on Saturday. Greybull finished the regular season in first place in the 2A Northwest, and had been the number one seed going into regionals. Greybull was eliminated from competing at state; however, when they lost to Shoshoni on Saturday morning by three games to two.

On Saturday afternoon, the Lady Cats faced off with Rocky Mountain, who had finished the regular season in second place in the 2A Northwest. Rocky Mountain had defeated Wyoming Indian and Kemmerer on Friday. After winning the first game by a score of 25 to 21, the Lady Cats then dropped three straight games – 25-17, 25-21 and 25-15.

With the loss, the Lady Cats finished the regional tournament in second place, and will be the second seed from the 2A West at the state championships. The Grizzlies will be the top seed from the 2A West.

At state, Big Piney will be the only team from the 2A Southwest, while the 2A Northwest will be represented by three teams – Rocky Mountain, Shoshoni and Thermopolis. The always tough 2A East will send four teams to state – Sundance, Tongue River, Pine Bluffs and Big Horn.

Summing up regionals, coach Shannon Hill stated, “We made some changes to the line-up on the front row and that seemed to gain us some additional consistency there. The girls played very consistently all week-end, and it led to success.”

The 2A State Championship Tournament will be held at the Ford Center in Casper, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. The Lady Cats will play Pine Bluffs on Thursday, at 4:30 p.m. Pine Bluffs finished the regular season in third place in the 2A East, and is the third seed from the 2A East for the state tournament.

As for Pine Bluffs, coach Hill said, “We played them to a very close loss at the Big Horn Tournament in September, so we know what to expect. They are a good team – like Greybull – so we will have to be on top of our game to win, but we have the ability to come away from that first game with a win.”