Falling short of a repeat, Worland volleyball still logs a successful season

WORLAND - Entering the 2016 volleyball season Worland was the reigning 3A champions and a favorite to bring home another state title. All season long the Lady Warriors fought off challengers and in a tough 3A East West Quadrant finished second by way of a coin toss.

After a 3-0 semifinal loss, 25-14, 25-18, 25-13, to Douglas at the 3A regional tournament in Rawlins, Worland bounced back by defeating Torrington 3-0, 25-14, 25-8, 25-12 to qualify for the state tournament. Then in the third-place match beat rival Buffalo 3-1, 26-24, 21-25-25-20 and 25-15.

Worland opened the state tournament sharp against Riverton winning 3-0, 25-14, 25-12, 26-24, and setting up a semifinal showdown with a familiar foe, the Douglas Lady Bearcats.

The Lady Warriors took the first game at 25-20, however, the next three games Douglas would win, 25-23, 25-19, 25-22, and in the process ending Worland's bid at repeating as 3A champions.

In the consolation bracket Worland needed to get pass Rawlins in order to compete in the third-place game. Unfortunately, things would not break in favor of the Lady Warriors and their season would end on a 3-0, 25-19, 25-18, 25-17, loss to Rawlins.

While the season did not end as planned Worland was still able to check off accomplishments on the season. For the program this was the third straight season recording 20-plus wins as they finished 24-7 overall, they made their third consecutive trip to the state tournament, had two all-conference honorable mentions (Charlee Townsend and Casey Wassum), three all-conference selections (Mackenzie Cottrell, Bailey Gibbons and Lyndzi Rich) and two players earning all-state honors (Gibbons and Rich).

For seniors Sierra Borovatz, Cottrell, Gibbons, Shania McGarvin, Rich and Townsend it has been an incredible four years as they've helped revive Worland volleyball and turn it into one of the better programs in 3A

"This was my first group I've had all four seasons," said WHS volleyball coach Brittany Miller, "What's awesome it is their freshman year we created a vision. As freshman we told them they would be state champions. From there they bought into everything we taught them and have been so coachable and they can call themselves state champions."

Coach Miller added, "They've gone to state three years in a row and before them we had a dry spell of not even making state. It just shows the character of these kids and how coachable they've been. I told the sophomores and juniors that had the privilege of being the state team this year to soak in these seniors in like sponges. They lead through service, encouragement and are just a class act all the way through."

Even though the team did not make it back to the title game coach Miller still had plenty of great moments to choose from this season.

"There are so many but truly for me the highpoints of the season was having a team that comes to the gym every single day with the collective mindset of getting better. This is my 16th year of coaching and teams aren't always like that and this team is. They wanted to get better every day. We do a lot of three dimensional coaching where we really look at the mind, the physical side and emotional side. And these girls have just bought into every aspect of learning and it was a joy to be around them every day," said coach Miller.

Losing six seniors that recorded a lot of playing time is going to be tough to replace but coach Miller is confident in the returning players and knows they're going to continue to work hard.

"Jaycee Page, Saige Jones and Casey Wassum had lot of playing time this year and on the championship team. We're losing a huge senior class that did a lot of things for us and everyone else around them kind of had supporting roles. We've got to get stronger and better at every position and the group that's returning will do that. They love volleyball they're eager to be in the gym and willing to be coached," said coach Miller.

Coach Miller continued, "We told them to go have an amazing basketball and soccer seasons or any other sports they're going to be in. And when it's our turn for volleyball again we're going to hit the ground running and the bar has been set high and we need to go for it."

Looking back on the season coach Miller reflected on what was truly important and the reason she loves to coach.

"At the end of the day in high school sports it's about teaching the kids to win at life and not just volleyball," said coach Miller, "It just reminds you that a lot of the time people will put pressure on the wins and losses but at the end of the day we're growing young adults. I feel like our seniors that are leaving us are going to be amazing young adults. They'll be phenomenal moms, whatever they do in the workplace they'll be leaders and they're just a class acts. We have some tremendous women leaving our program and that's why we are here and that's why we are coaching."