Lady Dogies come up short

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
After a great start in Northeast quadrant action last week, the Lady Dogies ran into some tough competition from two Southeast quad teams last Friday and Saturday. 
Both Torrington and Wheatland went into the weekend with only two losses on the season, so the Lady Dogies had a challenge ahead of them, and both nights familiar issues came back to haunt the squad throughout both contests.
“This was a tough weekend. We came into it with a good couple of games against Thermop and Buffalo, and I felt like we struggled a little bit,” head coach Keeley Anderson frowned. “I’ve got some new ideas and a good plan for what practices will look like this week, so hopefully we can turn things around and get some wins going forward.”
On Friday in Torrington and on Saturday in Newcastle, the Lady Dogies were swept by the Lady Blazers and Lady Bulldogs in three straight sets respectively, and though they struggled a bit with hitting and serving errors, they also showed glimpses of the kind of play that led to victory the weekend before.
“While there were a number of frustrating factors, I do feel that we stayed scrappy and worked hard until the end both nights,” Anderson declared. “Our defense worked hard to try and adjust to hitters putting the ball in places that we weren’t used to having to get to, and I have also been super impressed with our bocking this season. We have a number of girls who have really done a great job of getting a hand on the ball and either stopping it or at least slowing it down for our passers.”
Anderson admitted that the Lady Blazers took advantage of holes in the Lady Dogies’ defense and that the focus of this week will be to work on making a plan to cover those spots going forward.
Torrington pushed their advantage to take the match on Friday winning 25-17, 25-14, and 25-20. “I definitely underestimated Torrington going into it,” Anderson admitted. “They had a lot more height than I remembered, but I feel like once we work out a few things we can come back and get a win when they play here.”
Wheatland came to town on Saturday with a double barreled shotgun on the outside and right side which gave the Lady Dogies fits and resulted in 16 of the Lady Bulldogs’ 22 kills on the night.
“I knew Wheatland was scrappy. We played them at the Douglas quad so I knew that we would have to be strategic with where we placed the ball,” Anderson began. “We definitely had some good moments but we struggled against a couple of their big hitters.”
Newcastle played well at the net on the night and racked up more kills than their opponent, and spread out the attack over several hitters, however Wheatland was able to exploit some defensive weaknesses to thwart the Lady Dogies’ offensive attack.
Tiernan Stanton, nicknamed Big Red by her team, led the squad with 10 kills, Shawnee Miles added six, while Jaylen Ostenson and Claire Beastrom each added four on the night. In the back row, Anderson gave a shout out to newcomer Gabby McVay who came off the bench and stepped up in a highly stressful game situation.
“I’m really proud of how Gabby played on Saturday,” she nodded. “I threw her in there during the third set in the hopes to turn some things around, and she stepped up and handled it really well.”
Though the Lady Dogies were swept by Wheatland 25-20, 25-16, and 25-17, they didn’t go down without a fight, and going forward Anderson has some plans to switch things up.
“I had a little bit of an ‘Ah-ha’ moment this weekend,” she began. “I won’t share the details until I see how things work out, but I did some self-reflecting and was reminded that it’s never too late to change things up. I think we need to go into this week’s practices with a competitive mindset because I’m ready to watch our girls bring home a win.”
Up this week for the Lady Dogies is a road game in Douglas on Thursday followed by a home contest against Sundance on Friday.
“We’ve played both of these teams already during preseason, so we’ve got some good film to watch and prepare for this week,” Anderson determined. “I’m feeling pretty optimistic that we’ll be ready to go and show these guys that the Dogies aren’t a team that should be overlooked.”