Season comes to an end for the Lady Pioneers

TEN SLEEP - The Ten Sleep Lady Pioneers matched up against the St. Stephens Lady Eagles Monday night with the winner moving on to the 1A West Regional Tournament in Lander and the loser calling it a season. Unfortunately for the Lady Pioneers the bounces did not fall in their favor as the Lady Eagles won 3-2.

"As in life sometimes things don't bounce your way. They worked hard and never quit which was very important," said Ten Sleep volleyball coach Desiree Egger. "For us tonight our coverage was off, we needed to play tougher at the net and be more aggressive and our serve/receive needed to be better as well. Overall we were good but the little things came back to hurt us."

The match started on the right foot for the Lady Pioneers as they grabbed game one by a score of 25-22.

Riding the momentum and getting a boost from the energetic home crowd, Ten Sleep held the lead for a majority of game two. With an 18-17 lead the Lady Pioneers control of the game was pulled from them as the Lady Eagles took the lead, then the game on an 8-3 run to win 25-21, knotting up the match at a game apiece.

Much of game three was not breaking in favor for Ten Sleep, whether it was the bounce of the ball or calls, things kept snowballing on the Lady Pioneers. Yet, down 21-14 and their season on the brink, the Lady Pioneers refused to fold. Slowly they chipped away at the Lady Eagles lead, cutting the score to 21-17 before St. Stephens called a time out.

Once out of the break, the Lady Pioneers went right back to work and kept chipping away at the Lady Eagles lead. Ten Sleep pulled within one at 21-20 before St. Stephens rallied and used a small spurt to go up 24-22. Even being a point, a mistake, away from defeat Ten Sleep played together as a team outscoring St. Stephens 5-1 for the 27-25 win and 2-1 match edge.

With a fired up home crowd behind them the Lady Pioneers weathered a quick start by the Lady Eagles before they jumped out to a 17-8 lead. But as quickly as they jumped out to their lead, things began to falter for Ten Sleep. St. Stephens slowly eroded Ten Sleep's lead and with game four tied at 20-20, the Lady Eagles sprinted to the finish line by scoring the game's final five points. The Lady Eagles 25-20 game four win evened up the match at 2-2, with the match advancing to a deciding game five.

Just like at the end of game four, things kept breaking in favor of the Lady Eagles as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead. The Lady Pioneers battled their way back, even cutting the game to 12-9, but the early six-point lead was too much as St. Stephens won the match deciding game 15-9.

While the season-ending loss was a disappointment coach Egger was proud of her team, they fought for the entirety of the game and played together as a team. "They were behind each other and were a team. It didn't matter if it was a down point or a good point. They were rallying around one another and playing as a team. Our serving was so much better than it has been all season," said coach Egger.

With the 2016 volleyball season in the books Egger spoke about what she'd like most for her returning players to learn from tonight, and what it meant to coach them this season. "I'd like them to use that feeling of disappointment as a positive. They can use it as motivation to build a fire because they're very capable as they've shown tonight and throughout the season," said Egger. "I was proud to be their coach and with the lumps we've taken, with injuries and other adversities, they fought through them. We'll come back stronger next season and use this as something to build on."