Lady 'Cats pick up a gritty win in Newcastle

THERMOPOLIS - The match was tougher than expected but the result was exactly to the Hot Springs Lady Bobcats volleyball team's liking as they defeated the Newcastle Lady Dogies Friday 3-2 (20-25, 21-25, 25-15, 25-18, 15-13) at Newcastle High School.

"I'm super proud of the girls and they did a great job. They could have self-destructed in that third set but they were much better the next three games," said HSCHS volleyball coach Shannon Hill.

Thirteen of the Lady 'Cats 22 errors in the match came during the first two sets and were largely the reason why the Lady Dogies took an early 2-0 lead in the match. The slow start could have been a result of the long bus ride to Newcastle or possibly even overlooking the Lady Dogies.

Whatever the reasons, and more importantly, the Lady 'Cats were able to shake off those first two games, gather their composure and take the next two sets.

"Our defense was pretty flat-footed at first and not quite ready for that ball to come back to us. Newcastle has improved since we last saw them at our gym and maybe the girls thought this win was going to be easy. But they were able to overcome the slow start and I was proud of them for pulling it off," said Hill.

Leading up to the match against Newcastle, Hill had been working with her hitters to better read and react to what the defense was giving them. All season long she's liked the aggressiveness for her hitters but there have been times finesse was needed.

"There were points they could have made shots and chose not to. It's something we still need to work on but we're improving. Newcastle has a similar defense to Torrington – who we play first at regionals – where you can pick out their holes pretty easily but you're going to have to make shots to hit those holes. We weren't doing that at first, we were tipping the opposite of where we needed to go.

"It think it's a mental state right now, the green light or red light of am I on or am I off, it's just something that takes experience to get," said Hill.

Added Hill, "Kelly Johnson had a really good game, she had nine kills on 19 attempts. She figured out those spots and hit really well from the outside. Being able to flip-flop her and Sesi [Jensen] really helps," said Hill. "Ashley has a great swing but for some reason, she had 41 attempts but only seven kills. We need to get her executing more, she didn't have many errors but out of 41 attempts we need her to execute a few more balls."

In Newcastle, Hill also switched up her lineup and started sophomore Grace Whitt at middle hitter. The thinking behind the move was to bolster the Lady 'Cats blocking and Whitt did just that by strengthening the defense.

And with the defense shored up, the Lady 'Cats can use this week's practice to keep improving on their offense.

"Our offense is a huge piece that's going to carry us. I switched around my middles, I played Grace Whitt and she stepped up really well for us. She blocked really well at the net for us. Adding that piece for our defense, allows us to focus more on our offense at practice.

"We worked a lot on our blocking last week because when we played Glenrock our block was off. We broke it down and our blocking improved a little bit at Newcastle," said Hill. "We'll work on the offense all week and need to find our tempo."

The Lady 'Cats final match of the regular season is against the Buffalo Lady Bison at Buffalo High School on Friday.

It will be the final chance for Thermopolis to work out the kinks on offense with consistent play and build momentum heading into the 3A East regional tournament. Because next weekend, when they're in Torrington, the margin of error is thin.

"When we were playing Newcastle we were letting them go on five-point runs. That's been an issue for us because we'll let these teams go on a run and we can't get on a run of our own. Offense and consistency are the focal points for us this week," said Hill.