Netters round up ‘Cats and ‘Dogs

The Lady Dogies knocked off two ranked teams Thursday and Friday by defeating the Lady Bearcats of Douglas, who are currently sitting in third in 3A, and the Sundance Lady Bulldogs, who enjoy the fifth spot in the 2A rankings. 
The win over the Lady ‘Cats was especially sweet for Newcastle as the Converse County team has gotten the better of head coach Mickey Crabtree’s squad in their first three meetings of the season.
“The fourth time’s a charm,” Crabtree said. “It was awesome to beat them at their house and to do it in three sets. It was such a good feeling!”
Admittedly, things started off a little rough as Douglas took a commanding 10-2 lead early in the first set. However, the Lady Dogies made the needed adjustments to not only rally back, but to take that first set 25-18.
“It was great to see them right the ship,” Crabtree said. “It also didn’t hurt that Douglas started to make mistakes that we were able to capitalize on.”
The second and third sets were a bit more of a back-and-forth battle between the two squads, however, the Lady Dogies prevailed to take the three-set win, 25-23 and 25-21.
“It was a pretty sweet win,” said Crabtree. “It was great to see the fight in the girls and to see their determination to come out on top.”
While Douglas was making errors, Newcastle was able to cut down on the amount of errors they were making on their own side of the net. Serving was also improved over past weeks’ contests.
“It was awesome to see them implement the things we’ve been working on in practice,” Crabtree began. “They saw the court really well and started placing it well, which proved to be really beneficial.”
After the satisfying win over the Lady ‘Cats, Newcastle had to get ready to take on the Lady Bulldogs of Sundance at home on Friday.
“I think we were still a little sore over our loss to Moorcroft last week, so the girls were pretty determined to go 2-0 on the week,” Crabtree said. “They don’t like to lose, and we had a goal of continuing to implement the changes we’ve been working on, and they were able to carry over their good play from Thursday to Friday.”
The Lady Dogies continued to diversify their attack, to be more effective from the service line and to minimize the amount of unforced errors they were committing. That combination culminated in Newcastle sweeping Sundance pretty decisively in three sets, 25-16, 25-14 and 25-20.
Jaylen Ostenson really implemented the changes that Crabtree had been emphasizing as she saw the court and placed the ball well in both the Thursday game and on Friday at home. 
“She implemented the roll shots, the digs and the dinks well this weekend. She also targeted the deep corners like we’ve been working on these past few weeks,” Crabtree reported. “It was good to see that skill blossom, instead of always swinging as hard as she can.” 
Still, a goal for Crabtree’s crew is to build upon stringing more than a couple of points together at a time. 
This week, the Lady Dogies will kick things off by hosting Torrington in their annual Pink Game on Friday starting at 4 p.m. with the C-team game, then will travel to Wheatland on Saturday for games beginning at 11 a.m. 
Newcastle lost to Wheatland early in the season, and Crabtree is looking forward to seeing how her team will perform against them after the work they’ve put in.
“We will attempt to keep the ball away from their libero, who is phenomenal,” Crabtree predicted. “They also beat Douglas in three last week and are playing really well right now, so we will have to bring our A game.”