Lady Dogies up against it in Gillette

Sonja Karp

NLJ Sports Editor

The Lady Dogie volleyball team faced off against formidable competition Friday and Saturday as they were pitted against mostly 4A, or 4A equivalent, schools in their second weekend of play in Gillette.

Head coach Mickey Crabtree admitted that some of the teams her crew were up against were loaded, however, she also admitted that she felt her team could have come out of the weekend with more than just one match win and three set wins, and an eighth-place finish in the Silver Bracket. 

“I think we could have won a couple more, because I really think we kind of beat ourselves quite a bit,” Crabtree said. “We started off really great in our first match, and I really felt like we had come to play, but then it just seemed like we weren’t all there for most of the rest of the weekend. 

It was the Comets of Rapid City Christian who were the Lady Dogies’ first opponent of the day on Friday, and Crabtree was excited to see how her squad opened up against them, taking them to three sets, winning the first 25-20, then just barely getting out-scored in the second and third sets, 23-25 and 15-17. 

“I think we started fresh against RC Christian,” determined junior captain Syd Pederson. “We also knew them from last year, so we knew we could play with them.”

In the second match of the day, the Lady Dogies were pitted against the Lady Bolts of Thunder Basin. The 4A squad dominated Newcastle defeating them in two sets, 10-25 and 12-25.

The final match of pool play was against Burns. After getting the better of the Lady Broncs last week, Crabtree’s crew once again came out on top, this time in three sets, 25-13, 19-25 and 15-3.

“I think we might have been a little bit out of gas in our last match,” Crabtree said. “But, we’ve talked about the fact that right now we’re kind of riding a roller coaster when it comes to how we play.”

The Lady Dogies’ record was good enough to earn them a place in the Silver Bracket where they found themselves competing against the likes of Sheridan, St. Thomas More of Rapid City and Campbell County.

In all three contests, the Lady Dogies were defeated in two straight sets, however, in their final match of the weekend, Crabtree’s crew was determined to finish on a high note. Crabtree determined that the 20-25, 19-25 loss against the Lady Camels was the second best game her crew had played all weekend. 

“I think that our game against Campbell County was pretty good and I think that if we see them again, we could pull out a win,” Pederson said. “We had a couple of players who were either sick or injured, so we were missing them, but we also had players really step up in their absence, which was great.” 

According to Crabtree, a highlight of the weekend was when freshman Zadyn Allen stepped up after being thrown into the Campbell County game when starter Adalyn Olson had to leave the contest. Despite wearing a bit of a deer-in-the-headlights look having to take on the heavy hitters of Campbell County, the rookie held her own going a perfect 4-4 from the service line and racking up three kills. 

“I was so proud of Zadyn with the way she just stepped up and played,” Crabtree said. “She did great, especially with just being thrown out there unexpectedly.”

This weekend, the Lady Dogies will head to Rawlins for their final preseason tournament of the year where they will have the opportunity to see most of the 3A competition in the state.