Lady 'Cats out to right the ship with conference play starting

THERMOPOLIS - The past two weekends for the Hot Springs County High School volleyball team has been tough as the losses have piled up.

First was the Border Wars tournament in Cody on August 31 and September 1, the Lady Bobcats dropped all three of their matches. Losing to Miles City 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-19), Glendive 3-1 (25-12, 26-28, 25-20, 25-19), Hardin 3-1 (25-19, 25-27, 25-16, 25-20) and Billing Central 3-0 (25-10, 25-18, 25-8).

Then last weekend they went to Rawlins for the Rawlins Invitational tournament and lost both Saturday matches, Lander 2-0 (21-16, 21-11) and Newcastle 2-0 (21-20, 21-17).

"It's a little frustrating at times and this weekend was especially was tough because we were right there with every single team and we just couldn't finish. That's our biggest hump we're trying to get over right now," said HSCHS volleyball coach Shannon Hill.

In all six losses, the Lady 'Cats have struggled with stringing together points and committing unforced errors. Often times they'll stop the opposing team's run but follow that up with a serving error. Giving the ball and momentum right back to the to the other team.

"We were point to point with Lander until point-16 and they went on a run. With Newcastle, we missed eight serves in two games to 21. We lost by one in the first game and four in the second game. It's little things like that, our inconsistency and unforced errors that are killing us right now," said Hill. "We've stopped teams from going on runs then step back to serve and miss it. In volleyball, those types of plays are momentum killers."

Losing is always frustrating but Hill still believes in this team 100 percent. She sees just how high their ceiling is every day in practice, the thing is finding a way to bring what she sees in practice to the game court.

One way Hill has gone about trying to bring the Practice Lady 'Cats to gameday is increasing the practice intensity.

"It's tough for me as a coach because I see their potential every day at practice. They can beat Newcastle and Lander in practice but when it comes game time we're not transferring what we're doing in practice," said Hill.

"We've changed the tone at practice and have added consequences for unforced errors. Stuff like that makes practice more game like with the intensity and maybe that's where I as a coach have dropped the ball the past couple weeks. The girls need to know that I also look at myself too and what I need to change what I'm doing as well."

Added Hill: "I think making practices more intense has helped and I hope we're going to see it on the court this weekend. I know it's there we just got to bring it into a game."

The Lady 'Cats start their 3A East conference play with matches against 3A Northeast rivals the Newcastle Lady Dogies and Douglas Lady Bearcats. Friday Thermopolis host Newcastle at 6 p.m. at Hot Springs County High School and Saturday they travel to Douglas High School for a 1 p.m. match.

Now that the preseason tournaments are out of the way, Hill hopes with the start of conference play her team will start to find their rhythm. Outside of winning, the goals for this week are to limit serving errors, play aggressive on the outside and to keep working on their on-court chemistry.

"Winning the outside hitter game and our outside hitters are getting more kills. Winning the serving game is a huge piece for us too and serving over 90 percent will be fantastic. The girls just need to trust each other too, I've told them that I've told all the newspapers how passionate they are about this game and they're a fun group to coach," said Hill.