Lady Cats dig deep

by Karissa Nichols

Left Foot, Right Foot, Breathe is what you will see written on the back on the Lady Bobcats team shirts this year, and with some hard hitting and great defense from the Varsity Lady Bobcats in the last two matches of the tournament, the Lady Cats seemed to do just that and bring home the consolation bracket win as they traveled to Rawlins to compete in a 16 team tournament which consisted of all 3A teams from around the state.  

The Lady Cats were focused and pulled it all together in the last matches of the day on Saturday in the Silver bracket, with some great stats (unofficial) coming from all players on the court. Hard hitting seemed to be the name of the game on the second day of the tournament for the Lady Cats with  senior, Ina King posting 20 kills, junior, Hanna Hill with 13, senior, Brooklynn Williams with 10 kills, junior Kali Simeral with 8 kills and 4 added by junior Tensie Verhasselt to help the Lady Cats get past Glenrock and Newcastle.

The first match in tournament play on Saturday came against a tough Lovell team but the Lady Cats  eventually fell in two to Bulldogs with scores of 18-21 and 18-21. Lovell was able to gain the lead with tough blocking against the Lady Cats hitters and the Cats weren’t able to rally back for the win for their first match of the day.  Missed hitting errors and serves led to the Lady Cats falling short. Kali Simeral had two aces and a block in the game to try and fight back for the Cats, and Hanna Hill, Tensie Verhasselt, and Lexi Garrison all put up a block during the two game match but in the end they fell short.

The Lady Cats met up with Glenrock and were able to get out with a quick lead and easily win that match in two games with scores of 21-15 and 21-11 to get them into the consolation championship match.  The Lady Cats were able to execute their offense in this win and it showed.  Standouts of the Glenrock game were Ina King with 6 hits that were non-returnable by the Lady Herders and some nice back row defense by senior Libero Dazlyn Hunt and Outside Hanna Hill. Kali Simeral served 3 Aces and Brooklynn Williams with 2, against the team to help gain the lead.  Setter Lexi Garrison and Ina King had a rhythm and Glenrock didn’t have an answer for the hard hitting coming their way from the Bobcats.  

Lady Cats rallied to win a hard fought match in two over Newcastle with wins of 21-19 and 22-20 to seal the consolation bracket tournament finish.   The Cats got down 9-5 in the second set due to our own errors and got the lead back up to 17-12.  They let the Newcastle Dogies fight back into the game “but when the girls decide to compete, it is sure fun to watch,” according to coach Shannon Hill.

The Lady Cats dug deep and pulled off a 22-20 second set win. Kali Simeral posted 6 kills and 2 blocks, Hannah Hill with 6 kills, 1 block and 1 ace, Brooklynn Williams with 6 kills and 2 aces and Ina King with 6 kills. Tensie Verhasselt added a couple kills and an Ace and Lexi Garrison had a nice block as well as some great serve receives and defense by Dazlynn Hunt that all led to the Lady Cats playing strong and focused volleyball. 

Coach Shannon Hill said that she is “proud of the struggles we have gone through that will make this team better and proud of how hard they work in each and every set.”

Friday, the first day of the tournament, the Cats struggled to pull everything together and ended up with a record of 0-6 with losses to Rawlins (16-21, 14-21) Lyman (17-21, 12-21) and Moorcroft (19-21, 19-21). 

According to Coach Shannon Hill, “Our team struggled a little bit on Friday executing our offense and playing some competitive teams. We struggled with our own errors and keeping up with the speed of the game.” 

This put the Cats in the Silver bracket for day two with the 3rd and 4th place finishers from all Pools. Unofficial stats for day one of the tournament include:  Ina King 17 kills, 1 block, 1 ace.  Hanna Hill with 12 kills, 2 aces and 1 block, Brooklynn Williams with 6 kills, 2 aces and 1 block, Kali Simeral 6 kills, 5 blocks, Tensie Verhasselt adding 1 kill, Lexi Garrison with 40 assists and Dazlynn Hunt with great back row defensive play.

The Lady Bobcat Junior Varsity team competed in the two day tournament in Rawlins as well. Day one of the tournament the JV team posted wins against Rawlins with scores of 21-14 and 21-19.  They would later fall to Lyman and Moorcroft with scores of 19-21 and 14-21 against Lyman and 19-21 and 17-21 against Moorcroft. The Lady Cats JV team found themselves in the Silver bracket on day two to compete against a tough Torrington team that ended up resulting in a loss in 3 games. The Lady Cats lost the first one close 21-23, beat them in the second 21-12 and then found themselves in a hole in the third, 7-2.  After a couple well called timeouts, they rallied back to tie it up at 11, but then Torrington went on a run and ended up winning 15-11 in the third game of the match. Coach Larry Alwin stated “it was a great match and we played well against a tall and scrappy team.”  

Wheatland and Powell would later fall to the Lady Cats Junior Varsity team resulting in them winning the consolation side of the bracket.  Coach Larry Alwin commented that “we have a really great JV team this year that is really tough to beat when we put it all together, it’s the putting it all together that is the hard part.”  He is confident in the team that they will continue to improve and put it all together consistently.  The Junior Varsity team has a record of 5-4 on the season after the second week of the season. 

A busy week ahead is in store for the Lady Cats as the Lovell Bulldogs will be in Thermopolis on Thursday September 14 beginning at 4 p.m. for Freshman, 5 p.m. for JV and Varsity at 6 p.m. for a conference matchup. The Cats will head to Powell on Friday for games at 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30 for another conference match up and then head to Big Horn on Saturday for games at12, 1 and 2 p.m.

Official stats were not available at press time.