It was a long weekend for Fremont County’s Class 2-A Volleyball teams in West Regional action at Lander. Wyoming Indian, Wind River and Shoshoni all fell short of qualifying for the All-Class State Volleyball Championships at the Ford Wyoming Center in Casper beginning this Thursday.
Shoshoni
In the opening round the Lady Wranglers faced the second-seeded Kemmerer Rangers from the Southwest 2-A in a 1 pm contest in the Auxiliary Gym at the Bob Carey Memorial Fieldhouse.
Shoshoni built a two-game lead 25-13, 25-16 before the Lady Rangers battled back in the third game with close two-point win 25-23. In the decisive fourth game, Shoshoni dominated 25-14.
This sent the Lady Wranglers into the late game Friday night against Northwest Conference Champion Greybull at 7:30 pm on the main floor.
The Buffs swept Shoshoni in the regular season and were 6-0 in conference play and 18-9 overall including wins over several Class 3-A teams.
Greybull quickly sent Shoshoni to the elimination bracket 25-18, 25-17, 25-15. The Lady Buffs eventually won the tournament with a three-game sweep of Big Piney in the championship match.
Saturday morning at 11 am, the Lady Wranglers fell to Thermopolis in three straight. They dropped the first two in volleyball’s version of extra innings, 26-24, 26-24, but fell apart in game three, 25-9, ending their season.
Wyoming Indian
Earlier in the morning, the Lady Chiefs gave Thermopolis everything they wanted.
The third seed from the Southwest 2-A, Wyoming Indian opened the tournament against second-seeded Rocky Mountain falling in three games 25-21, 25-15 and 26-24. The loss send the Lady Chiefs into a 9 am Saturday morning elimination game with the Lady Bobcats.
In the best match of the tournament, Wyoming Indian and Thermopolis battled for almost two hours in a five-game marathon.
The Lady Chiefs won the first two games 25-18 and 26-24 before fading in game three 25-13. The last two games were nailbiters. Thermopolis won game four 25-23 setting up the bumper match that would extend one team’s season. The Lady Bobcat held off the Lady Chiefs 25-23 to advance to the match against Shoshoni.
Thermopolis eventually fell to Rock Mountain in the third-place game but advanced to the state tournament as the west’s four-seed.
Wind River
Wind River has struggled all season and that trend continued in their 2:30 pm opening round match against Northwest Champion Greybull on the main floor of the Lander fieldhouse.
The Lady Buffs systematically advanced in a three-game sweep, 25-15, 25-12, 25-14, sending the Lady Cougars to a Halloween elimination match at 7:30 pm against the Lady Rangers of Kemmerer.
There were no treats for the Lady Cougars, but no tricks either. Kemmerer won the match 25-23, 25-22,25-18 ending Wind River’s season.