Netters start fast - Greybull wins 6 of first 8 sets at NBH Invite

The Greybull Lady Buffs showed some encouraging signs at last weekend’s North Big Horn Invitational, going 6-2 in pool play to qualify for the Gold bracket before bowing out with losses to eventual champion Sundance and Rocky Mountain in the third-place match.

All of Greybull’s pool play matches were against Burlington and Tongue River.  The girls swept the Huskies, winning 25-17, 25-15, then 25-23, 25-15, and split four sets with the Eagles, 22-25, 25-24 in the first tussle, 25-22, 16-25 in the second.

The girls started fast but couldn’t close out either match on Saturday.  They beat Sundance in the first set, 25-23, but dropped the next two, 20-25 and 7-15.  The Rocky Mountain match followed the same pattern: a set win, 25-18, followed by two set losses, 16-25, 11-15.

Playing for the third time in six days, the Lady Buffs hosted Lovell Tuesday night and fell 3-1.  Match scores were 17-25, 14-25, 25-21, 18-25.

The opening slate of contests left Coach Sara Schlattmann feeling optimistic about her young team, which has only three seniors in Fatima Chavez, Julie Lopez and Aleksey McColloch.

“Lots of great things are happening,” she said. “I am very proud of them and (against Lovell), what I appreciated the most was their no-quit attitude.  There was a lot of try out there.  The goal was to relax and enjoy the game.  So for me, we are meeting some of those goals.”

Of the weekend as a whole, she said, “McColloch has been leading our attack thus far and that is not a surprise as she lead the team last year as well.  Wyatt Whaley has stepped in and done a great job of setting for her first time on varsity.  I could say great things about all of them and I just can’t wait to see how they progress this season. It is very early and we are still trying to find a rhythm that works for us.”

The Lady Buffs will travel south this weekend for the Wind River Foothills Classic.  The schedule lists three matches for the girls on Friday — versus Shoshoni at 3:30 p.m., Dubois at 5 p.m. and Big Piney at 6:30 p.m. — and two more on Saturday versus Wind River at 9 a.m. and Wyoming Indian at 10:30 a.m.

Schlattmann said the tournament “will give us more opportunity to dial in a rotation.”

She’s looking forward to the next matches at Buff Gym, citing the raucous environment Tuesday night.

“It was very fun to once again have a good crowd cheering us on,” she said. “That is what makes it so fun and I am grateful for that.  Lots of great things to look forward to and we will just continue to work on being better passers and try to get more aggressive on offense.”