ON TO THE SEMIS

CASPER – One match down, two more to go.

Worland advanced to the semifinals of the Wyoming State High School Class 3A Volleyball Championships on Friday with a four-game win over Powell at the Casper Events Center.

It was a great start to the weekend, especially since a handful of girls had never played at the state tournament before. Once Thursday's match was over, though, the Lady Warriors certainly looked like they belonged there.

"I think the monkey's off of our back now. Half of our team has never even seen state before so this is a brand new experience so (the win) helps to get it out of the way," said Worland volleyball coach Brittany Miller.

Both sides were executing well in the first game, neither team giving up more than two or three points in a row. It was a close battle throughout that saw Worland come out on top 25-23 to take a 1-0 lead.

In the second game, though, Powell took command early and had Worland backed up against the ropes with a 9-2 lead. After a timeout, the Lady Warriors quickly found their stride and tied the game up 9-9.

And they were just getting started.

Worland kept up the scoring onslaught with a 23-3 run to close out the game – scoring 12 straight at one point.

"We knew when their tall girl was in the back row we had a huge advantage because we had Charlee (Townsend) and Bailey (Gibbons) at the net at the same time. We talked about it in practice all week long how we need to go on long runs when she's in the back row," said Miller.

Powell's never-say-die attitude showed in the third game, even with Worland leading 12-7 early on. The Lady Panthers scored five straight to tie things up at 12 apiece. Each team had made small runs the rest of the way, Powell's coming late to grab a 21-19 lead as it fought to keep its chances alive.

Worland would come back to tie the game at 24-24, but Powell was able to shut the door in the third game with a 26-24 win and trailed two games to one.

Volleyball is a game of momentum and Powell carried all of the momentum it had into the beginning of the fourth game and got out to a 9-3 advantage early.

Slowly but surely, though, the Lady Warriors fought their way back into it. First they closed the gap, then they tied it and then they took the lead late 19-15. Try as they might, the Lady Panthers just didn't have enough left in the tank as Worland took game four 25-19, and the match along with it.

"We didn't drop our heads. We knew we were going to make mistakes, they're going to happen. We told them we need to answer every mistake with something good and they did that," said Miller.

Now, the attention shifts quickly to the semifinals where the Lady Warriors will face Buffalo who beat Star Valley in five games, 25-23, 15-25, 26-24, 25-22 adn 15-13, in the last match Thursday evening.

"We focused all week long on Powell and now we only have a short amount of time to get ready for (the next opponent)," said Miller. "We've got to refocus and be ready for (Friday's) match. It's going to be a battle.

"We've got to show up to play."

Worland's semifinal match is schedule to begin around 6 p.m. today at the Casper Events

Center.