No. 3 Lady Warriors fall in nail-biter to Buffalo 3-2

WORLAND - Worland High School gym was a lively and, for a matter of fact, loud as the Worland High School volleyball team hosted the Buffalo Lady Bison Friday night.

The atmosphere felt like that of a match during the 3A state tournament, and the play matched that high level as well. It was a battle between the two 3A East-West division rivals with plenty of win an inch, give an inch happening.

Unfortunately, the No. 3-ranked Lady Warriors gave too much as they fell to the Lady Bison 3-2, (26-28, 25-13, 21-25, 25-16, 15-9).

"We have to be more disciplined in our assignments, we fell short on some of our details that we were expected to do tonight, whenever we did them though we scored. I told them we're at the point in the season where we need to do things the first time and be mentally tough enough to do those details every time," said WHS volleyball coach Brittany Miller.

Game One and Four were the two most tightly contested games of the match. In Game Four after leading 16-11 the Lady Warriors had to weather a strong pushback from the Lady Bison. Buffalo tied the game at 19-all but on the next play Worland's Payton McEndree came up with a big play to give her team a 20-19 lead. From there Worland went on a 5-2 run to close out the game.

Although the Lady Warriors would drop the next two games, resulting in the loss of the match. Miller was sure to remind her players that while the loss was disappointing it's important that they don't let this loss define their season.

"I told them we have to leave the locker room united because we can learn those things and beat them next time we see (Buffalo). We have to leave untied so that happens. You can leave and fall apart and have your season do the same. Or we can work on it and grow and beat them next time we see them," said Miller.

A lot of what hurt Worland Friday night was the rhythm busters. The team would string together three to four points at a time and would look poised to go on a run but an error would kill that momentum.

"We have to get the ball back right away and not allow the other team to go on a run. We get stuck sometimes in rotations and give up some runs. We have to be more disciplined so we can get the ball back," said Miller.

Casey Wassum pulled off her fair share of incredible digs and Saige Jones had excellent kills Friday night, but Miller would like to see her team capitalize more on those digs.

"Those great digs we have to convert into kills. We need some more hitters stepping up besides just Saige (Jones). We need to convert better offensively. Buffalo has some great hitters and when Saige came to the front row she matched them kill for kill. That was exciting to see one of our players step up and go kill for kill with them," said Miller.

Today Worland host the Wheatland Lady Bulldogs, it will be a tough turnaround for the team, but it's a challenge that Miller believes their up for.

"We haven't watched Wheatland a ton this year, but they have changed their lineup every single time. We're not sure what to expect, but we know if we can handle our side of the net I think we can get a win. We have to do a 180 and be ready to get a win," said Miller.

The Worland varsity match against Wheatland will begin at 1 p.m., with JV at 12 p.m. and freshman at 11 a.m.