Lady Dogies poised to make a run

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies wrapped up the regular season last Friday and Saturday hosting the Douglas Lady Bearcats on Friday and taking on Burns and Buffalo in a triangular in Buffalo on Saturday.
Though all three matches ended in three sets each with Newcastle on the losing end, head coach Ashley Reed was pleased with the way her squad competed and feels like they are in a position to push through Regionals and extend their season.
“I thought we played Douglas even better than we played them the first time, and we did so with yet another lineup because we didn’t have Claire [Beastrom],” Reed nodded. “I thought the girls adjusted well and played competitively. They kept swinging, they didn’t give up and they didn’t let anything hit the ground without a great effort to get to it.”
The Lady Cats’ formidable front line, featuring heights from 6’0” to 6’4”, got a few blocks on the much smaller home team, but Newcastle did a great job of compensating for that height by going over or around the block.
“They started running quicks (quick sets) on us which they did not do last time, but I thought we adjusted well” Reed explained. “That’s a whole new on the fly kind of situation, but I thought the defense and the blockers adjusted well, and once we did they were not nearly as successful with that.”
Newcastle also debuted some new moves by running a couple of quicks of their own, and pulled off some specialty hits they’ve been working on in practice off of which they were successful in scoring a few points of their own. 
Though the match ended with a 12-25, 17-25, and 15-25 sweep by Douglas, the Lady Dogies were competitive throughout.
On Saturday in Buffalo, Newcastle faced off against the Burns Lady Broncs in their first match of the day. 
“Everything went long, so the girls sat for three hours before playing. Because of that I think it took us the whole three sets to get us warmed up,” Reed sighed. “We couldn’t come out with a W on that one but we should have, which is a bummer.”
Once again, it was a straight set loss, however the Lady Dogies put up 22 points in the first set and 18 in both the second and third. 
Up next for Newcastle was the home standing Lady Bison. The last time these teams met Buffalo was dominant, with one particular player giving the Lady Dogies fits. Though Buffalo once again took the three set win, they had to work a little harder for it and Newcastle had a better answer for their best player.
“Ellie [Olson} didn’t do much damage like she did last time,” Reed declared. “They tipped a lot more than they swung, and I think blocking from Lauren [Steveson] and Grace [Coy] had something to do with that.”
Coy was also a force to be reckoned with on the net offensively. Between the two contests she slammed down 15 kills and left with a 42% kill percentage. 
Back row play was also strong for the Lady Dogies, who as a team dug up 77 hits against Burns and 63 against Buffalo. Libero Johnna Dawson, back row player Honesty Olson and setter/outside hitter Madi Pearson were largely responsible for those saves. Dawson ended the day with 37 digs, Pearson had 31 and Olson dug up 16 while only playing three rotations.
“I have to give a big shout-out to Honesty, Johnna and Madi,” Reed smiled. “Johnna and Madi were all over the court and Honesty played all the way around in JV and halfway around on varsity, but she didn’t let anything hit the floor without going 100 miles an hour to try to get it.”
The Lady Dogies finished out the season with the fourth seed from the East as they head into the Regional Tournament this weekend. As such they will first face Rawlins, who is the number one seed from the West on Friday at 2:15 in Torrington.
From there, they will then face either Buffalo or Burns, depending on the outcome of both matches. 
“We played Burns before at the Rawlins tournament the third week of the season, and the first time we didn’t have Isabel and last weekend we didn’t have Claire, so we will be new for them,” Reed nodded. 
Though their win-loss record isn’t what they would hope, the Lady Dogies have shown a lot of growth and improvement over the season and, as Reed stated, are peaking at the right time.
“The girls are ready and they are stoked to play, so it should be a good time,” she grinned. “We will have a nice breakfast at Coy’s and then will head out. We have a great playing time on Friday without a long bus trip, so we are excited.”
With a loss on Friday, the Lady Dogies will play the loser of the Buffalo/Burns match at 10:45 on Saturday morning. A win against Rawlins will put them into the semifinals Friday evening against the winner of the Buffalo/Burns match.