Lady Warriors dispatch Star Valley quickly

WORLAND —The Worland Lady Warriors picked up where they left off after taking third at regionals last weekend and made quick order of Star Valley in the quarterfinals of the 3A State Volleyball Tournament in Casper Thursday. Worland won in straight sets 3-0 (25-23, 25-29, 25-17).

Coach Brittany Miller said, “We stuck to the game plan right out of the gate and our girls served really tough.” She said the strong serving game took Star Valley out of their offensive system, giving Worland time to set up defensively.”

“We practiced serving like that all week and it was really nice to see that carry over to the state court; because sometimes it’s a little different the way it is set up. But they mentally carried it over to the state court, so I’m really proud of them.”

While the scores look close, Worland set the tone quickly in all three games, jumping out to early leads. In game two they jumped out to a 9-2 lead and led 16-8 at one point. In the third game, they jumped out to a quick 5-1 lead and then 13-6 lead. Star Valley closed the gap 14-11 but the Lady Warriors went on another run to increase the lead up to seven, 22-15, before closing out the game and match, 25-17.

Miller said being able to jump “right out of the gate” put the pressure on Star Valley and not on Worland.

Regarding the run by Star Valley in the middle of the third game, Miller said, “We had a couple of errors from being aggressive. We’ll take those errors. The girls were swinging hard and I’m OK with that.”

Overall, she said the win was a true team effort. “Our girls played as a whole unit. We had a lot of people contributing, offensively and defensively. We had a lot of girls pick it up.”

She noted that Jaycee Page had the stomach flu “but you would never know it. She just played a solid game all the way around.

“It was just a huge team effort. I told the girls going in the locker room, ‘that win was we out-teamed them. We need to keep that up going into [today],” Miller said.

The win puts Worland in a semifinal match with their nemesis Douglas. The Lady Bearcats defeated Worland in the semifinals last year, and a team they haven’t beaten since 2015.

Douglas, the No. 1 seed from the East, defeated the No. 4 team from the West, Mountain View 3-1 (25-20, 25-15, 23-25, 25-21). Game time is 4:30 p.m. at the Casper Events Center.

As for defeating Douglas, Miller said the key is playing like they did Thursday. “We’re going to have serve tough and pass well. They have one of the best hitters in the state and she’s going to find some kills. I said at the end of the day we just need to be two points ahead of them at the end of the match.”

She said it will also require another huge team effort. “The girls are bought in and have some confidence right now, believe they have an opportunity. That’s half the edge right there,” Miller said.

Miller added, “We know them so well. We know all their serving tendencies and their hitting tendencies. We just have to put our plan into action [Friday] night.”