Netters win big over Buffalo

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
The Lady Dogies record last week may seem disappointing, however their one win was a big one as they toppled the second seeded Lady Bison of Buffalo on their home court last Saturday. The journey to get to that big win was challenging, however.
It was a really busy, up and down week for the team which began with a makeup trip to Wheatland to play the Lady Bulldogs on Tuesday. Unfortunately, the trip took longer than the match as the ladies succumbed to Wheatland 13-25, 11-25 and 15-25.
“Wheatland was rough,” admitted head coach Keeley Anderson. “We just did not play well which lead to us having a long talk about changing things up and that seemed to help as Wednesday and Thursday were great, positive practices for the team.”
It became apparent early in the Lady Dogies contest against the powerhouse Douglas Lady Bearcats on Friday that the positivity of the last couple of days had made an impact on the squad. Despite dropping their second contest of the week in three straight sets, the level of play was elevated significantly from the Tuesday night match. 
“They played really hard and had really positive attitudes which was great,” Anderson began. “It might not seem like it looking at the scores, but we battled well and I was proud of how they played.”
The Lady Dogies dropped the sets 18-25, 13-25 and 10-25, but ended up scoring more points against the number three ranked Lady ‘Cats than they had against the Lady Bulldogs on Tuesday. 
The focus of the week for the team was the contest against the Lady Bison in Buffalo on Saturday morning. This was a big game for the squad as Newcastle and Buffalo are slated to face off against each other in round one of the Regional tournament this Thursday. The season is on the line in that match as the winner will qualify for the state tournament and the loser will close out their season.
Buffalo held the two seed in the Northeast Quadrant while Newcastle was third, and the winner of the Saturday game had no bearing on who would play whom, however, since the Lady Bison had stolen the win against the Lady Dogies in five sets earlier in the season, Newcastle was eager to even the score and take that momentum into the postseason.
“We just really wanted to beat them, and do so in four sets at the most,” Anderson began. “It was super fun to watch and the girls were jacked. They were having fun and were making Buffalo scramble.”
Newcastle burst out of the gate strong, taking the first set 25-19, and then Buffalo came back to take the second 25-18. Tied at one set apiece, both teams were determined to prevail in the third set. 
“It was awesome to see the girls come out and play well in the first set, because we have been starting slow pretty much all season,” Anderson admitted. “When they won the second set, I told the girls that we wanted to make sure we got the next one so that they would be scrambling to catch up in the fourth set.”
The ladies took that to heart and battled hard with the Lady Bison to go up 2-1 after the third by taking the 25-21 win.
At that point, Newcastle dominated Buffalo through the fourth set and took the match with the most decisive win of the morning by putting them away 25-17.
“That was awesome to see the girls really step up in those last two sets,” Anderson smiled. “I think if we bring the same mentality to our game on Thursday, we have a really good chance to beat them again and earn a trip to the state tournament.”
The emotions of getting the victory over the Lady Bison may have contributed to the performance of the Lady Dogies in their second match of the day as they took on the Lady Broncs of Burns. Once again, a slow start nagged Newcastle and they were only able to get 13 points on the board before Burns reached 25. 
The Lady Dogies started to warm up in the second, but couldn’t quite get there, dropping it 17-25. Finally, in the third set, the squad came alive to take the 25-20 win and push the match to a fourth, however they couldn’t maintain their momentum so dropped the set at match 17-25.
“We were playing tired,” Anderson admitted. “We made mistakes that could definitely be attributed to fatigue but that means that we have to work on our stamina.”
Though the team finished with a 1-3 record on the week, they won when it counted and will take that with them as they prepare to face off against Buffalo at 3 p.m. in Douglas on Thursday in the first round of the one-and-done 3A East Regional Tournament. 
“We are holding the edge on Buffalo, having beat them in fewer sets than they beat us,” Anderson began. “But, we may have lit a fire underneath them as well, and we are two pretty evenly matched teams so we will have to bring our A game for sure.”
With a win, the Lady Dogies will likely play Douglas also on Thursday for seeding against the Southeast winners on Saturday.