A strong first season at the high school level saw the Powell Panther freshman volleyball team earn a 17-6 record, with a strong group expected to be competitive in the years to come for the high school program.

Starting out the season at home the Panthers posted wins over Worland, Lander and Riverton but lost to Lovell and Cody to start 3-2.

The Panthers followed that up with wins over Greybull and Rocky Mountain before heading to a competitive Buffalo tournament without some of their top players.

At that tournament the Panthers earned wins over Worland, Buffalo, Newcastle and Sheridan before losing to Lovell to finish second.

“My best memory of this year is how the girls performed at the Buffalo tournament,” coach Greg Stenlund said. “We were without our three best players; however, the girls stepped up and played so well together and ended up getting second place in a very competitive tournament. It was a very fun and memorable day.”

Following the Buffalo tournament the Panthers defeated Burlington, Worland and Cody before a loss to Lovell.

The Panthers then won five straight, defeating Thermopolis, Rocky Mountain, Worland, Buffalo and Greybull.

Powell then lost its final two matches of the season to Cody and Lovell to finish 17-6.

Stenlund said that his best players included Kindyle Floy, Autumn Kidd, Abigail Visocky, Peyton Ott, Sam Edgell and Stella Shoopman.

Setting primarily came from Floy and Ott while Kidd and Veronica Kovach also helped set for the team.

The best hitters on the team according to Stenlund were Kidd, Floy, Edgell, Ott and Shoopman, while Visocky primarily played as the libero for the team.

“When she was not available, Cabree Gates and Abree Haney did a great job filling in for Abigail,” Stenlund said.

Improving the most for the team this season were Kovach and Gates, who Stenlund said became very reliable in their positions in the back row by season’s end to help the Panthers.

“Veronica started hitting slides at the end of the season and Cabree’s passing from the back row was very reliable,” Stenlund said. “It’s nice to be able to count on players to perform at a high level when they’re on the court.”

Throughout the season Stenlund said one of the strengths of the team was the ability to make something out of nothing.

“One of the strengths of this team was scrambling for out of system balls when something did not go quite right on the previous hit,” Stenlund said. “They were tenacious about doing all they could to get the ball back to the other side. They never gave up on points which kept us in a lot of games.”

Alongside that strength came some weaknesses on the team that Stenlund believes need improvement to take that next step as a team.

“One of the weaknesses of this team was just their ability to finish a point with a hard kill to the other side of the court,” Stenlund said. “They got better as the season progressed but still needed to improve on hitting hard to open spots on the court. Two other areas that need refinement are serving consistency and court coverage. We worked and worked on hitter coverage and at times would still be left standing and staring at the hitter.”

He said that a number of athletes from this group will be a factor in the varsity squad moving forward that he believes the upper level coaches will enjoy working with.

“A number of these freshmen will factor into the varsity squad next year,” Stenlund said. “They have great raw skills and athletic ability that our upper level coaches will be happy to work with and bring them to even higher levels. It was a great group of hard-working girls and it was very enjoyable to work with them on a daily basis.”