Lady Buffs clinch another conference title

The Greybull Lady Buffs took it on the chin in their final two matches of the season, falling to the Tongue River Lady Eagles at home Thursday 13-25, 15-25, 9-25 and to a determined Shoshoni team Friday in the final conference match, 26-28, 16-25, 21-25. The good news is the defeat at Shoshoni did not impact the standings and the Buffs are ranked as the No. 1 seed from the Northwest heading into the Class 2A West Regional this weekend.

“I am confident that this team will bounce back. They are a great  group of determined athletes who have had a great season and we cannot let a few off nights change the trajectory of our season,” said Coach Sara Schlattmann. “We will be working hard at building back our confidence and just dialing in our passing and attack this week.”      

Looking back at the loss to the Lady Eagles Thursday, Schlattmann said, “We came up against a tough Tongue River team and just couldn’t put together an entire set. We struggled in serve receive and that really is where the majority of the match was played — at a much faster pace than we have been playing in our conference. We never really got adjusted.”

Julie Lopez, Shayne Cheatham and Perla Rodriguez were 100% from the serve line. Leading the attack were Aleksey McColloch and Rodriguez, both had five kills. Marlee Hensen had two and Ellie Holloway one.

Wyatt Whaley had 12 assists and Fatima Chavez led passing with seven digs.

At Shoshoni Friday, the Buffs continued to struggle. On the other side of the net, Schlattmann said the Lady Blue “played a great match. They were very scrappy, digging a lot of our best attacks. They played with nothing to lose and it paid off for them. After losing a tight first set, we never caught a second wind. We had a hard time slowing down their attack with our blocks.”

McColloch, Cheatham and Acuna were perfect from behind the line. Whaley was 94% with two aces. 

The attack, distributed by Whaley with 20 assists, was led by McColloch with eight kills, Henson had seven, Rodriguez seven and Acuna three.

Defensively, McColloch had eight blocks. Holloway, Whaley and Rodriguez each had two and Acuna one. Chavez had 14 digs to lead the defense. “She also had a good night of passing out of serve receive,” noted her coach.

“In the end we seemed to be very ‘in our heads’ and that resulted in low confidence and more conservative play than we would usually play,” she said.

Regionals

Looking ahead to the West Regional, the Buffs share a bracket with Thermopolis, Big Piney and Wind River.  Coming up on the other side are Kemmerer, Rocky Mountain, Wyoming Indian, and Shoshoni.

The Buffs will play Wind River in their opening game Friday at 11:30 a.m.  Win or lose, they will play the winner/loser of the Thermopolis-Big Piney match.  If the Buffs win their first match, their second match will be a semifinal match at 4:30 p.m.  

A trip to state depends on a team winning two matches before losing two.

“It is a new season and we just need to get back to our basics, play with confidence and believe in ourselves and our team.  It will be a battle and I know our team is up for it,” Schlattmann concluded.