Lady Grizz rebound to win four of five in Greybull

After struggling a bit at the Big Horn tournament and Powell, the Rocky Mountain Lady Grizzlies had a bounce-back weekend at the Greybull Invitational Tournament over the weekend, sweeping four matches and losing only one.

On Friday, Rocky Mountain swept Saratoga 25-11, 25-21 and Wind River 25-10, 25-8. Saturday, the Lady Grizzlies swept Kemmerer 25-16, 25-14 and Big Piney 25-21, 25-22, but they were swept by Riverside 25-10, 25-24.

“It was a good weekend overall,” head coach Stephanie Ames said. “We won four of five matches. We did enjoy only having two games Friday and three Saturday as we’ve been at three other tournaments, and it’s been a grind. It’s always great to play teams we don’t see during the regular season.

“We did a lot of things well, and I’m excited to get into the meat of the season and play some full games. We’ve worked on some different offensive techniques, and the girls did get to use some of them this weekend. It’s great to see things on the floor during games that we’ve practiced during the week.”

Ames said the lone loss to Riverside was not all doom and gloom.

“We could not get things going at all in the first set, and their servers were able to take advantage of that,” she said. “Our second set was a much better representation of our team, and we finished only one point behind them. We were able to run our offense more fluidly and shut down their hitters.

“Though the score of the second set technically showed a loss, we take it as a win as the girls came together to shake off the first set and play their style of ball.”

Junior Lauren Bassett returned to the lineup and led the team in kills during the tournament with 32. Senior Brittly Boettcher added 29 kills, senior Tarynn Schoening 18 and senior Shelby Wambeke eight.

Junior Keylee Christiansen led the team with 47 assists, and Wambeke had 34. Bassett served 12 aces, Schoening seven and Christiansen four. Senior Elliahna Scheeler had three solo blocks, Bassett and Wambeke two apiece, and Bassett had four assisted blocks, Wambeke three, Scheeler and Christiansen two each.

Boettcher led the squad with 35 digs, and Christiansen finished with 24, Wambeke and Scheeler 17 each, Bassett 16 and junior Layla Gardner 14.

Lovell match

Tuesday night in Lovell, the Lady Grizzlies battled the Class 3A Bulldogs well but dropped three sets 25-15, 25-22, 25-22.

Set number one was close until a Lovell run put the home team up 17-10, with Ames calling a time out. She called a second time out when Lovell led 21-14, and the Lady Bulldogs went on to win 25-15.

The second set was much closer. Rocky several times came within one point of Lovell and eventually tied the score 22-22. But Lovell scored the final three points to win 25-22.

Rocky took an early 6-2 lead in the third set, and after Lovell knotted the score 9-9, the Lady Grizz built a 13-9 lead, only to see Lovell rally to lead 20-17. Undeterred, the Lady Grizz fought back to lead 22-20, but they couldn’t close out the set as Lovell scored five straight points to win 25-22.

“We continue to struggle with strong starts; it’s one of our main focuses in practice right now,” Ames said. “We have an absolutely amazing team. They can really play the heck out of volleyball. We just need to find the consistency.

“It’s always a great, important challenge to play good teams, and Lovell is one of them. It was a good back-and-forth battle, and we’re happy to have had the opportunity. Playing 3A teams is good for our growth and we get to play three this year in the regular season with the Powell, Lovell and Worland contests.

Conference matches

The Lady Grizz open conference play this weekend, hosting Greybull Friday at 5 (JV) and 6 p.m. and traveling to Shoshoni Saturday for first serves at 2 and 3 p.m.