Lady Dogies rounded up by the Broncs

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter 
 
The Lady Dogies had to roll with some changes to their plans this week due to uncertainty regarding a possible COVID case in the high school. As a result, they were able to travel to Burns to play on Friday, with some restrictions, but their home contest against Wright on Saturday was postponed, just to be cautious.
“I understand their thinking regarding Wright since we didn’t know what our situation was, and since it wasn’t a conference game it wasn’t that big a deal,” began head coach Keeley Anderson. “However, it was disappointing and I’m glad we’ll get to make it up.”
Though missing out on a contest on Saturday was disappointing, the team headed to Burns on Friday afternoon for a conference, but not quadrant, matchup with the Lady Broncs. Newcastle had informed Burns that an NHS football player was awaiting test results for COVID, and BHS determined that they would go forward with the contest if Newcastle players were masked at all times, except when they were on the court. Therefore, the team wore masks on the bus ride, and in the gym unless they were playing.
“That was our first time having to do that, and I could see that the girls were already a little worn out because both the bus and the gym were hot,” Anderson sighed. “They dug down deep, though and really played a pretty good game despite all that.”
Burns also had their starting setter return this week after MCL surgery which gave the Lady Broncs a different look than what Anderson had seen from their first weekend of play. According to the coach, her team adjusted well, and read the ball pretty well.
It was a tight match between the two teams with the Lady Dogies and Burns battling back and forth throughout. However, the Lady Broncs were able to pull out a 25-22 win in the first set.
In the second set, the Lady Dogies came roaring back and dominated for the most part, pulling out a 25-20 win to tie the match at one game to one.
“Burns started to make a little bit of a run, but we knew that when they get down they kind of fall apart,” Anderson explained. “When they started to make a comeback, I thought we did a really good job of watching for that and taking advantage of the situation.”
In the third set, the two teams continued to battle for the lead but Burns squeaked out another win, defeating Newcastle 25-23.
“It was really tight and I think it just came down to who wanted it more,” Anderson mused. “We had some miscommunication there at the end which led to some errors and that’s what got us.”
Fatigue started to show itself for the Lady Dogies and at the beginning of the fourth set, the squad dug themselves into a 12 point hole, which forced Anderson to use her second time out at 2-12. 
“We did rally and came back after that and ended only seven points behind which is a positive,” Anderson declared. “They didn’t give up and roll over and that’s good to see going forward.” 
After struggling with serving and with kill attempts in their season opener against Upton last week, the Lady Dogies took great strides in cleaning up that aspect of the game.
“In all four sets, we saw a big change from last week, because we only had seven missed serves on the night,” Anderson smiled. “Our kills were crazy! In the third we had 12 and we had at least six in each of the other sets. Kill errors were also down, but if you’re swinging you are going to miss some. They were finding their groove so I’m excited to see what the next game will bring.”
This week the team goes to Sundance on Thursday and will play all levels beginning at 4:00, and then on Saturday, the 12th the team is scheduled to play a quad in Douglas. They will have two gyms going and will clean between matches, and the Lady Dogies will get three matches in during the day.