Lady Warriors battling through injuries, still find a way to win in Rawlins

RAWLINS - The Worland Lady Warriors volleyball team has experienced a season's worth of injuries during the past three weeks and yet, still have found ways to win matches. In Rawlins on Sept, 7 and 8 for the Rawlins Invitational, the Lady Warriors closed out the tournament by winning the silver bracket without key players.

"We were in the toughest pool and were only one point away from being in the gold bracket. Overall I was really pleased considering that our lineups keep changing, injuries keep happening but our girls seem to persevere, endure and taking in stride each new rotation with a great new attitude," said WHS volleyball coach Brittany Miller.

The Lady Warriors lost senior McKenna Butte for the season during the Border Wars in Cody on Sept. 1. Senior Caitlin Cottrell has been dealing with a back injury most of the season and Miller has been limiting her time as a result. In Rawlins, Cottrell gave it a go but wanting to limit her jumping Miller put her in a position where she didn't have to jump as much.

Another injury for the Lady Warriors was Denali Jones, the sophomore hurt her shoulder against Douglas on Friday and missed the remainder of the tournament. Still, the Lady Warriors kept moving forward as the next player up filled in and did their job.

"We've been trying to have her not jump as much and have held her out for a day during the Border Wars. This weekend it was really bothering her and we kept having to adjust. Then Denali Jones injured her shoulder and was done for the weekend," said Miller. "Kudos to the girls, our lineup keeps changing because of injuries and they just keep doing it. They're working hard and finding a way to win."

Miller credits the Lady Warriors intense practices and tough internal competition for readying her reserve players for the varsity court.

"It just shows the battles we've been having in practice. Some of the younger girls have been really pushing to get on the court and I keep telling them in timeouts they're ready for this. That's why our competition is so high in practice because we have a lot of them ready for these positions and they're doing it on the court," she said.

In winning the silver bracket Worland beat Wheatland 2-0 (21-11, 21-18), Lovell 2-0 (21-9, 21-11) and Lander 2-1 (16-21, 21-18, 15-8).

Part of the benefit of being in the silver bracket was the Lady Warriors got an early look at their 3A Northwest division rivals, in Lander and Lovell. Considering Worland wasn't at full-strength and they were still able to beat Lovell and hand Lander their second loss of the season, this group is showing incredible resolve.

"The silver bracket we agreed the night before that we had to win it and they stepped on the court and did that," said Miller. "It just shows that we're right in the money even going through some adversity right now, no matter our lineup we're only going to get better. Lander has two incredible outside hitters and Game 1 they took it to us. Our girls listened to what they needed to do to stop them and responded great to win Game 2 and 3 for the championship. It was great to see how coachable they were in the heat of the moment and they could make those adjustments."

Rawlins marked the final preseason tournament for Worland and this week they head into the conference schedule opening up at home against the Lovell Lady Bulldogs on Thursday at 6 p.m.

The 3A West factors to be heavily competitive and specifically the 3A Northwest division might be one of 3A's toughest divisions. Worland, Lovell, Lander and Powell will all trade haymakers at some point this season.

"Our conference is so tough this year. We keep talking about the teams at the top the Lymans, Pinedales and Mountain Views. We're going to have to serve and pass very well and we're going to have to stick to the basics. Watching those teams they don't make any passing errors and we have to be just like them. We're not going fancy, we're just sticking to the basics.

"We've made some changes to the back row by moving Alexa [Caballero] back there. She gives us more experience back there and our serve receive, Day Two in Rawlins, was over 80 percent for the first time this year. We have to keep building on that because the best teams are serving and passing well and we have to be right there with them," said Miller.

JV TEAM

The Worland Lady Warriors JV turned some heads in Rawlins, the up and comers found their way into the JV gold bracket and took fifth. Just as the varsity team was dealing with a constantly changing rotation, so was the JV team, as Miller had to call JV players up to the varsity.

"Our JV finished fifth in the gold bracket and did that even though I kept pulling girls from them because of our injuries. Their lineups were different every single time and those girls responded very well and did outstanding," said Miller.