Lady Wolves prep for state

The Green River Lady Wolves volleyball team came in third at regionals and are now setting their sights on state.

This past weekend, the Lady Wolves played two games. Since the Lady Wolves entered the tourney as the No. 2 seed in the 4A west conference, they had a bye on Friday.

Even though the Lady Wolves weren’t playing until Saturday, they were at the tournament watching other teams.

“I think it helped them get into the weekend. We knew who we were playing and knew what to expect,” head coach Rikki Shantz said.

On Saturday, the Lady Wolves first game was against Natrona County, which the Lady Wolves lost, 27-25, 14-25, 16-25, 25-14, 9-15.

“Having fresh legs on Saturday was definitely and advantage. The pressure of making it to state was off so that was nice,” Shantz said.

The Lady Wolves hit the ball really well, but their passing and receiving was struggling during this game. She said it was hard for the team to get into a rhythm when their passing game was lacking.

Despite this, Shantz still believes the teams are well matched.

“I think we are very comparable. I tend to think we have more strengths at different positions, but we haven’t been able to come out on top the last couple of times we’ve faced each other,” she said.

After Saturday’s loss, they played Evanston for a chance at third place. The Lady Wolves came out on top in four sets, 16-25, 25-14, 25-22, 25-22.

“We have beaten them every time we’ve played them this year, but that team really wants to beat us,” Shantz said. “It’s always a heated battle.

During this game, the Lady Wolves were more relaxed, but they worked hard and kept their energy up.

This game was played immediately after the Natrona County game, which didn’t give the Lady Wolves much of a recovery time.

State prep

With regionals out of the way, the Lady Wolves will be fine tuning some of their skills and their serve and receive passing.

On Thursday, the Lady Wolves are set to play Thunder Basin first, a team they have never played before nor seen play.

“I’m watching film; and think we will mainly focus on us this week,” she said. “How we can improve.”

Shantz is happy with being the No. 3 seed heading into state.

“We’ve went in to the state tourney for the past three years as the No. 4 seed,” she said. “It is very hard to match up against the first-place seed from the other conference. Since Thunder Basin is a new school, I don’t think we have any mental barriers to fight.”

The team’s goal is to win their first game and hope for a rematch against Kelly Walsh.

They are also hoping they west side of the state will beat a lot of the east teams in the first round.