Kicking off the season in Lander the Powell Panther volleyball team got off to a strong start, pulling off sweeps against Shoshoni, Lander and Farson-Eden before defeating Lyman 3-1 to cap off a 4-0 opening weekend.

POWELL 3, SHOSHONI 0

(25-19, 25-18, 25-13)

The Panthers (4-0) started the season against a lower class opponent in the 2A Wranglers (1-3).

Even with a slower start, the Panthers won the first set 25-19, and a similar set followed in the second as the Panthers finished with a 25-18 win.

“It’s always hard coming off a long bus ride and then the nerves and jitters of the first game of the season,” coach Anna Flitner said. “So Shoshoni, you know I was, I don’t want to say worried, but I was like, this isn’t the team that we’ve been seeing in practice the last few weeks.”

Wrapping up the first match of the season the Panthers found a groove in the final set, cruising to a 25-13 win.

Flitner said she felt it was good for the Panthers to get their jitters out early.

“It felt like after the Shoshoni game we got all the jitters out, and they started to relax and just have a little bit more fun,” Flitner said. 

POWELL 3, LANDER 0

(25-21, 25-17, 25-14)

Heading into that second match the Panthers squared off with the host Tigers (3-1), getting a preview of a potential opponent down the road from the 3A Southwest.

Flitner said it was a good road matchup against a strong Lander crowd.

“It was a super fun game because their crowd is loud and it’s a home environment. I think it was a good test for us,” Flitner said. “I’m glad that we got to play them in the evening game because they are in our conference.”

Another close set started out the matchup, but the Panthers held off the Tigers and earned a 25-21 win.

The Panthers then got into a groove, as they earned a 25-17 second set win and a 25-14 third set win to complete a second sweep.

“They started to kind of get into their groove when they played Lander, which was fun to see,” Flitner said. “I think the girls came to the bench afterwards and they were like, ‘this was so much fun.’”

POWELL 3, FARSON-EDEN 0

(25-13, 25-10, 25-19)

Heading into Saturday the Panthers matched up against a lower classification opponent once again, as the Panthers took on the 1A Pronghorns (1-3) from Farson-Eden.

Powell came out stronger, winning the first two sets with ease 25-13 and 25-10.

The Panthers finished the final set 25-19, with Flitner noting the importance of playing that match before taking on their final opponent of the opening weekend.

“It was nice to play a team before we played Lyman, because with tournaments, the warm-ups are just so short that it’s hard to completely get ready for a game like Lyman if you don’t play before it,” Flitner said. “So it was kind of nice to play Farson as a warm-up game. Not saying that we were looking past Farson, but at least to get their arms warm and get them moving, rather than starting kind of cold with Lyman.”

POWELL 3, LYMAN 1

(25-17, 25-8, 19-25, 26-24)

Heading into the final match of the weekend the Panthers were looking to get an early win over a ranked opponent, as Powell opened the season at No. 5 in the WyoPreps Coaches and Media Poll and the Eagles (1-3) started the year at No. 4.

Powell came out strong, dominating the first two sets 25-17 and 25-8, appearing to be heading towards another sweep to end the weekend.

Then in the third set the Eagles came out firing, winning the set 25-19 despite a late rally by the Panthers and forcing a fourth set.

“I’ve already been trying to talk to the girls about the mental piece of the game. Volleyball is just one of those sports where other teams are going to get kills and they’re going to get aces, and that’s just the way the sport goes,” Flitner said. “For example our serve-receive in that third set was struggling a bit, we talked about it, they were able to get it back and it was pretty much back on point for the fourth set. So having those mental challenges, I guess in terms of getting through the little bit of lows, or working through an area of the game that they’re struggling with, is huge for us.”

In the fourth set both teams battled till the end, with the Panthers hanging on after taking a late lead, finishing with a 26-24 win to end the opening weekend 4-0.

EVANSTON TOURNAMENT

Powell now heads on what will likely be the longest road trip of the season, traveling to the southwest corner of the state to take part in the Evanston Border Wars against teams from Idaho and Utah.

Apart from working on the mental aspect of the game, Flitner is looking for the Panthers to up their versatility in hitting, while also having setters work on getting passes to the right spots for kills to be hit.

“For a lot of these girls they have so much talent and so much potential, and physically I’m not worried about their game, but I think we can really improve our mental game and our body language and the way we all kind of push each other on the court and build each other up,” Flitner said. “I would really like our hitters to work on being more versatile in terms of where they’re getting kills and working on shots. Swinging down the line or tooling the block, or working on tips, things like that. That way we have a lot of things, if we get shut down in one area we can adjust and try something different.”

Teams dropping out and entering the tournament have caused a scheduling delay for the Border Wars — the schedule was not released as of press time.