Lady Warriors eyeing bounce-back week at 3A West conference duals

WORLAND - Coming off a strong tournament in Casper the previous week, last week was a letdown for the Worland Lady Warriors volleyball team. Yet, while last week might have been a setback, the Lady Warriors look to get back on schedule at this weekend's 3A West conference duals.

The Lady Warriors played three games last week, traveling to Rawlins on Sept. 27, hosting Lander on Sept. 29 and hitting the road to face Buffalo on Oct. 1.

Worland went 1-2 in their three games last week, defeating Rawlins 3-1 (25-17, 23-25, 25-13, 25-21) but losing to Lander 3-1 (25-17, 17-25, 25-17, 25-23) and Buffalo 3-0 (25-11, 25-16, 25-22).

"We were coming off a great weekend the previous week," said WHS volleyball coach Becky Wassum. "They played so well in that Casper tournament, beating some 4A teams and making the gold bracket. We had Rawlins, had a short practice, then played Lander the next day. The girls were just real sluggish that night against Lander."

Wassum continued, "During the Casper tournament, they executed the changes we made on defense. They were really aggressive on offense. Karen Navarro had a great weekend as the libero. Their confidence grew. I think last week was a good learning opportunity for them in that you have to keep working. Just because you were successful once doesn't mean you don't come out and work hard even when you're exhausted."

One thing Wassum noticed during last week's matches, especially against Lander, was her team's aggressiveness on offense. When games got close, the Lady Warriors were too conservative when they should have been going on the attack.

"They have a tendency when things get tight, they start tipping and serving carefully. They're playing not to mess up. If they don't play aggressively by swinging hard and serving aggressively, the ball comes back at them harder. That's what we're working on this week. We want to be aggressive whether we're ahead or trailing. If you're going to go down, go down swinging," said Wassum.

Offensively, the pieces are there for the Lady Warriors. Led by libero Karen Navarro, the team has a strong serving game. They're good in the passing and serve/receive game. The Lady Warriors just need to stay aggressive on that end to improve their offense.

"A lot of the girls are really good servers, and I'm really grateful for that because if you can serve well and consistently, you can be a winning team. Their passing and serve/receive are strong. We just need to add more offense to our game plan," said Wassum.

The good thing for Wassum and her staff is that the Lady Warriors have shown they are quick learners.

"We had a great practice on Monday and worked on specific things like sealing the block on the side and creating more offense. We just couldn't focus through the whole game last week too. Mentally that's something we need to work on, too," said Wassum

This week's 3A West conference duals in Lander on Friday and Saturday serve as a sort of preview for the 3A West regional tournament. While there's no bracket, this week's duals allow teams from the 3A Northwest and 3A Southwest to play each other.

"These are huge games. We play Lander first, then Pinedale. We've been watching film, and if these girls can play like they're capable of, I have really high hopes for them," said Wassum. "We're just learning each week. We took a couple of steps back last week, but we're not giving up. We're just going back to work."