Lady Bulldogs drop conference game to Wolves

The Sundance Lady Bulldogs were handed their first conference loss this past week as the Moorcroft Wolves pushed them into five sets for the victory.

“We haven’t had any opportunity to go to five sets this season and it was a great lesson,” coach Blaczyk commented about the loss. “Maintaining a high level of play throughout when winning so handily to begin is where we need to focus our efforts.”

Winning handily in the beginning is just what the Lady Bulldogs did, ending the first two sets relatively quickly with a 25-11 and 25-18 score. However, set number three saw the Lady Wolves starting to come up with some big hits and important blocks at the net.

This effort by the Wolves kept the game close and forced the Lady Bulldogs to double down their efforts. In the end, it was Moorcroft who reached 25 first as the Lady Bulldogs trailed with 23.

Set number four brought the determination out on both sides. The Bulldogs continued to give their best efforts behind the hard hitting of Sherri Negaard and Bailey Hofland, each of whom had 13 kills for the night, but it was not enough to counter the Wolves scoring and the Bulldogs fell in set number 4, 18-25.

Going into unprecedented territory for the season, the Bulldogs found themselves facing a short game to 15 to determine the winner. In another tight game, neither team was able to run away with the score and it was the Lady Wolves of Moorcroft who won by two with a final score of 15-13, handing the Lady Bulldogs their first conference loss of the season.

The Lady Bulldogs will not dwell on this loss for very long as they have two more conference games this week, travelling to face the Tongue River Eagles on Friday and hosting the Wright Panthers on Saturday in Sundance. Play on Saturday will begin at 1 p.m. with the JV, followed by varsity at 2 p.m.

Stats

SHS vs. Moorcroft 25-11, 25-18, 23-25, 18-25,13-15

Baillee Heaster: 21 assists, 1 ace, 12 digs

Cana McInerney: 12 assists, 9 kills, 1 block, 1 ace, 9 digs

Sherry Negaard: 13 kills, 3 blocks, 7 digs

Ty Holloman: 6 kills, 3 blocks, 6 digs

Brook Hofland: 2 kills, 1 block

Bailey Hofland: 13 kills, 3 blocks

Aftyn Marchant: 1 ace, 45 serve receives, 20 digs

Nevada Gill: 4 digs

Briska Johnson: 9 digs