3A East Regional volleyball tournament preview

WORLAND - Rawlins High School will host this season's 3A East Regional volleyball tournament on Oct. 28-29, and for Worland High School and Hot Springs County High School the push to extend their seasons begins Friday.

Lady Warriors

Record: 20-4, 4-2 and No. 2 in the west quadrant

Last five matches: 3-2

After losing to the Rawlins Lady Outlaws on Friday Worland had to await the outcome of the Rawlins/Buffalo match to learn what their seeding would be. A Buffalo win would give the Lady Bison a No. 1 seed, the Lady Warriors a No. 2 seed and the Lady Outlaws a No.3 seed. A Rawlins win would create a three-way tie between the three teams. Rawlins defeated Buffalo 3-1 Saturday, creating the three-way tie.

With all tiebreakers even the only way for the three-way tie to be solved was by coin toss. Rawlins was first to lose the toss giving them the the No. 3 seed. Now between Worland and Buffalo for the No. 1 seed, the Lady Bison won the toss giving them the No. 1 seed and the Lady Warriors the No. 2.

Worland opens regionals vs. the Wheatland Lady Bulldogs at 10:45 a.m. The last time the two teams matched up was on Oct. 8 in Wheatland with the Lady Warriors winning 3-0, 25-20, 25-14 and 25-7.

The Lady Warriors are on the same side of the bracket as the Douglas Lady Bearcats. Douglas beat Worland on Sept. 16, 3-1, 25-21, 19-25, 25-23, 25-17. If everything goes chalk two of 3A's best can meet up once again in the semifinals.

Last season at the 3A East regional finals Worland made it to the championship match but lost to Rawlins 3-1, 25-18, 17-25, 25-15 and 25-22.

Lady Bobcats

Record: 10-15, 0-6 and No. 4 in the west quadrant.

Last five matches: 1-4

Playing in their first season in 3A, the Lady Bobcats have had to fight through the season's adversities and growing pains more so than usual. While their 10-15 record might cause some to dismiss them, however, Thermopolis played in one of the 3A's tougher quadrants, with Buffalo, Rawlins and Worland, and did reach 10 wins in 3A this season.

The postseason allows for a team to wipe away the regular season's missteps and two victories on Friday and Saturday will send the Lady Bobcats to the state tournament in Casper on Nov. 3-5.

The first opponent for the Lady Bobcats will be the Douglas Lady Bearcats at 12:30 p.m. The two teams have met twice before, they opened the season on Aug. 26 against each other, Douglas won 2-0, 25-8 and 25-13. Then to close out the season the two faced one another again with Douglas winning 3-0, 25-16, 25-7 and 25-19.

HSCHS volleyball coach Shannon Hill spoke about her team's season and what it will take for them to extend their season. "One of our better moments this season was our match against Buffalo last Friday. We lost but out girls played well and stuck with them. This season it seems like every third game we are in we play very well and that's been the challenge of stringing those games together to grab the win.

"Our defense plays very well but our offense needs to start putting balls away. Against Douglas our biggest challenge will be for our offense will need to make plays and put things away," said Hill.

Coach Hill also talked about what she's liked the most her team in the lead up to regionals. "They been working hard to get ready for this week," said Hill. "These girls all have the passion and a ton of grit, so we'll need to string it together for multiple games to pull off some wins. We've beaten Wheatland and Torrington and were neck and neck with Rawlins, so I believe we have a shot. It's nice having 12 girls there to work and get ready for this week."