Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Lady Warriors Caitlin Cottrell (left), Casey Wassum (middle) and Alexa Caballero (right) celebrate after Caballero's game-winning hit in Game Two during Worland's 3-0 vicotory over Newcastle at Worland High School Saturday afternoon.
WORLAND - Less than 24 hours after suffering a humbling 3-0 loss to the No. 1-ranked Rawlins Lady Outlaws in Rawlins Friday night, the Worland High School volleyball team bounced back with a vengeance against the Newcastle Lady Dogies Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Warriors defeated the Lady Dogies 3-0 (25-11, 25-7, 25-7) in their first home match of the 2017 season at Worland High School.
"I was really proud of them because they could have walked into the gym lethargic and tired, but they came in hootin' and hollerin' and a total 180 with energy level and it showed on the court. They came in with a lot of energy after that match against Rawlins and we were really proud of them," said WHS volleyball coach Brittany Miller.
Against Rawlins the previous night, the Lady Warriors were flat to which the Lady Outlaws took advantage of as they defeated Worland 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-15).
The frustrating thing for Worland on Friday night was they would hang with Rawlins but give up spurts here and there that added up over the course of each game.
"We were off and Rawlins was on and together those do not go well. We talked afterwards about Rawlins being at their peak right now and they'll have to sustain that all season. And we're not and I feel like we have a long ways to go," said Miller.
Continued Miller, "We have to eliminate runs. We played point-to-point with them but every now and then we'd give them three or four points in a row. Against Newcastle we focused on limiting that and not letting them have the ball two times in a row."
The Lady Warriors did just that Saturday in their home gym, limiting Newcastle's serves and going on extended runs of their own. Two examples of that would be in game two Worland started on a 10-2 run before winning 25-7 and in game three jumped out to an 18-5 lead before closing out the match on a 7-2 run.
Worland was aggressive from the start, whether it was with their pinpoint serving or strong kills. The Lady Warriors finished the match serving at a 90 percent rate with 16 aces (Casey Wassum four, Alexa Caballero three, Saige Jones three, Jaycee Page three and Kate Wassum three) and finished each game with a strong kill, much to the liking of their coach.
"It was a whole group effort on energy level. Everyone was relaxed and when we're relaxed we serve really well. After the match we talked about how do we stay relaxed against a team like Rawlins and keep our serving aggressive like that. If you're serving and passing well it really helps and it was on today helping our whole offense," said Miller.
"All of them contributed to our aces and it was pretty balanced and impressive. Up to this point we're serving at about a 94 percent. As a program we've never been that high before and 90 percent is where you want to be for good volleyball...it was nice to end on a hard swing," said Miller.
This week the Lady Warriors have two matches on the docket. First up Worland travels to Powell today for a 7 p.m. match against the Lady Panthers. Then closing out the week they host 3A East, West Division rival the No. 4-ranked Buffalo Lady Bison at 6 p.m. at Worland High School.
"We just played [Powell] in the semifinals at the Rawlins Tournament and beat them. But this will be a full match in their place, so we're going to have to show up and play," said Miller about her team's focus going into today's match.
