A strong first weekend showcased the Panther volleyball team in Riverton to the rest of the state, finishing with two wins over 4A teams and emerging with a 4-1 record.

Powell opened up its weekend against one of those 4A teams, matching up with Sheridan in the Panthers’ first game of the season.

Coming out with intensity and a strong focus in the first match of the season, Powell walked away with a dominant victory over the Broncs 21-15, 21-6 to complete the early sweep. For the opening tournament teams played to 21, best of three, with the deciding set to 15. 

“We are feeling really good,” Panther volleyball coach Lesli Spencer said. “Coach [Chelsi] Graham and I sat on the bus after and looked at stuff we need to work on, but we felt really good about the team as a whole.”

In the team’s second matchup of the day on Friday, the Panthers came up against the only 3A competition they would face all weekend, southwest quadrant foe Pinedale.

Even though the Panthers would likely not face the Wranglers in a key matchup until the regional tournament, Spencer and the Panthers knew the importance of seeing a conference opponent this early in the season.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, Pinedale came prepared to play and walked away with a 21-19, 21-11 two-set victory to drop the Panthers to 1-1 on the season.

“We just did not step on the court ready to play,” Spencer said. “We were as flat as I have seen us play, we did not come out ready at all and could not get out of the rut in that match.”

An early wake up call for the Panthers came on Saturday morning, squaring up with 2A Shoshoni after the first loss of the season Friday night.

Powell answered the call, putting away Shoshoni in two sets with a 21-18, 21-6 victory.

Powell again came up against another 2A opponent on Saturday afternoon, facing off with Big Piney.

The Panthers won a close first set 21-19, and dominated the second set 21-3 — setting up a final matchup with host Riverton.

Another 4A opponent presented trouble for Powell early, with the Panthers dropping the first set 21-18.

“We were the last game of the tournament on their home court and their crowd was there,” Spencer said. “Their crowd was ready to take home a win, the student section was there yelling at us and that first set we came out a little flat. After that they decided to step it up and finish strong. We were excited to see them battle back in an intense environment.”

The Panthers won the second set 21-18 and won the decisive third set 15-12 to finish the weekend 4-1.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, they did not come out of the weekend unscathed, as senior Sydney Spomer went down early with an ankle injury. Spencer said she believes it is a minor injury and will not impact Spomer any further than the upcoming weekend.

MT/WY BORDER WAR

The Panthers now return a lot closer to home for their next tournament, heading over to Cody to take part in the Montana/Wyoming Border War this Friday and Saturday.

Spencer said she hopes the Panthers will be able to improve their defensive positioning around the strong blocking Powell produced in Riverton, and continue to work on serving to specific spots.

She also said she hopes the Panthers will focus on not needing to kill the ball each time they go up for a spike, and understand that a point is a point whether it is killed, tipped or just mishandled.

The tentative schedule for the weekend is a matchup against Billings Central at 1 p.m. on Friday, followed by a matchup with Lockwood High School at 5:30 p.m.

Powell then gets another early start on Saturday, facing Hardin High School at 8 a.m. and caps off the weekend against Park High School at 2 p.m.

“I was super proud of the girls, it was a real team effort in Riverton,” Spencer said. “I am excited to see what they can do in Cody against these Montana teams.”

Those times are tentative, as the games are on a rolling schedule following the first matches on Friday.