Hauling Home the Hardware: Lady Herders land in fourth at 2A State Championship

Sophomore Ann Marie Young (left) hits the ball over the net during the Lady Herders’ match against Shoshoni at the Casper Events Center Nov. 5. (Photo by Zach Miners/The Douglas Budget)

By: 
Cinthia Stimson, cinthia@glenrockind.com

The Lady Herders volleyball players were excited, nervous and seriously amped up as they headed into the 2A championship games Nov. 5 at the Casper Events Center.

They’d just come off a third place win in regional play in Pine Bluffs against Tongue River the end of October. That win was enough to send them to the 2020 WHSAA State Volleyball Tourney, quite an achievement considering the team had numerous injuries throughout their season.

Alas, it wasn’t in the cards for the Herders to win first place – but they did place fourth – of which their coach Meghan Anderson, and their community are sincerely proud of them for their hard-fought accomplishment.

Glenrock was seeded to play their first match against Shoshoni, where they lost three and won one set: 25-19, 21-25, 16-25, 22-25.

“The girls really focused and prepared, and really came together. They played really well together against Shoshoni in set 1, then in the next three sets we dropped it and Shoshoni ended up winning. The serve-receive kind of fell apart and was not as good as in set 1,” Anderson said.

“After that match the girls were definitely bummed, they were so excited and hopeful about playing in the championship game. We talked about what we could do to finish out our season, we talked about bouncing back quickly. We only had an hour before the next game and we talked about the things we needed to do in the next match against Wind River. We discussed focusing on third ball and serve-receive,” she said.

Glenrock’s second game in the playoffs was against Wind River. The Herders won this match with a score of 3-0, 25-18, 25-14, 25-9.

“We beat Wind River in three. We had a lot of young kiddos out there, a freshman, two sophomores, two juniors and only one senior. They brought it in, it was a totally different environment in the center. I think the nerves and excitement . . . there was just too much emotion, too much going on that first game. They settled in and relaxed into playing volleyball. The girls definitely had that and it was an all-around good game, with great team effort. It took all six girls on the court to do their jobs,” Anderson said.

In the third game of the day, Glenrock handily won the match against Tongue River with a score of 3-1, landing them in fourth place in the 2A championship playoffs. The set scores were 25-19, 26-28, 25-15, 29-27.

“Because of that win against Wind River, we got to play in the consolation championship game against Tongue River. We ended up winning 3 sets and they won 1. It was just a great way to end our season. Everyone on the team just showed up. Everyone did their jobs. They played  so well together to end our season with the “big team, little me,” outlook,” she said.

The Lady Herders finished up this season of volleyball with an 11-14 record.

“We brought home hardware. We won that fourth place trophy and that’s huge, especially with the changes and injuries all season long. I am definitely proud of them. We ended on a good match, we played very well. I’m really proud of the girls to place in the championship. It was exciting,” Anderson said.

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