Netters skate by Bobcats

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Editor
 
Things are heating up in the 3A East as the regular season draws to a close, and the Lady Dogies are looking to make a run at the No. 1 seed in the Northeast Quadrant after defeating the Lady Bobcats in Thermopolis Friday.
The east conference is extraordinarily tight this year as evidenced by the now three-way tie for first in the Southeast after Torrington and Burns each beat undefeated Wheatland last weekend, and in the Northeast, Douglas got past undefeated Buffalo to tie for first. Newcastle has a second shot at both teams this week to potentially establish a three-way tie as well.
“I’ve said all year that this year, it’s anyone’s to win it,” began head coach Andrea Gregory. “We are all so evenly matched that it will come down to whichever team shows up.”
Taking the second win over Thermopolis on Friday was the first step in making a run for the top seed. Gregory admitted that her squad had the upper hand going in, and was also a little disappointed in the way the ladies performed overall in their 4-1 victory in the match.
“We really played pretty flat until the fourth set,” she said. “We didn’t really play our game. I don’t know if it was bus lag or what, but fortunately, we are talented enough to just skate by and still pull out the win.”
The first set was the epitome in demonstrating that volleyball is a game of momentum as each team traded runs
back and forth. Newcastle was able to hold onto the lead, however slim it may have become from time to time, to take the win 25-19.
The second set was much the same, however the Lady Dogies were a bit more dominant, finishing the Lady Bobcats off with a 25-17 advantage.
“We weren’t really quite awake yet in the first set. We weren’t swinging like we usually do, and we were more reactive and being a chameleon playing their game instead of ours,” Gregory speculated. “And then we played the same game in the second set, but were able to come away with a win in both.” 
It looked as though Newcastle was going to walk away with a three-and-out win, as they pulled out to as much as a 7-point lead early in the third set. However, Thermopolis went on a 15-3 run to pull out the 25-19 victory over Newcastle to push the match to a fourth set.
“We just let them take over and take the momentum, and after that we couldn’t catch up,” Gregory admitted. “We ended up losing by 6 and we had 6 missed serves. That is unreal for us to have that many in a single set!”
The defeat seemed to pull the Lady Dogies out of their reverie. They pulled ahead to 5-1, then slowed down to allow Thermopolis to tie things up, but from there, dominated the Bobcats.
Jaylen Ostenson stepped up to the service line at 11-7 and led her team on a 10-0 run to take the 21-7 lead that would eventually end in the 25-11 set, and match, victory.
“We finally came alive in the fourth set,” Gregory nodded. “We were blocking and swinging, and almost every time we would swing all night, we’d get a kill, so I’m glad we finished the match that way.”
This week is a huge one, for both seeding purposes and for gaining momentum heading into the 3A East Regional Tournament next weekend. 
“If we were to have played the regional tourney last weekend, we would have played Burns, but I think things are shifting,” Gregory predicted. “This weekend will be pivotal, and we have three really big games. Burns is a big game because there’s a good chance we’ll see them at Regionals, and we are pretty evenly matched, and we have some long, drawn out volleys against them, but we can’t overlook anyone.”
Newcastle will travel to Douglas on Friday for contests at 3, 4 and 5. Then on Saturday, the Lady Dogies host a triangular with Buffalo and Burns beginning at 9:30 with both JV and varsity contests.