The Niobrara County High School Lady Tigers captured a state berth for the first time since 2017 at the 1A regional tournament.
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GUERNSEY – Last weekend, Niobrara County High School (NCHS) entered their first 1A tournament as the three seed from the Southeast Quadrant. By the time the dust settled on Saturday afternoon, the Lady Tiger volleyball team qualified for the state tournament for the first time since 2017.
“It’s been a long road and we’ve seen a lot of change, but we’ve worked hard together,” Paige Potter said. “And to get to this point, we deserve this.”
Friday’s first round saw the Lady Tigers facing Kaycee – a team they had split with during the regular season. First round jitters didn’t seem to affect Lusk in the three set sweep (25-14, 25-18 and 25-21).
Later that night, Lusk was in their first regional semifinal since 2005. Across the net was Southeast and the Lady Cyclones showed why they are on the short list of title contenders this weekend. Southeast took advantage of several unforced errors and sent NCHS into an elimination game with the 25-14, 25-18 and 25-16 three-set win.
Saturday morning at Viking Gym, Gracie ZumBrunnen set the tone early with a kill and a 6-2 Lusk lead over Hanna-Elk Mountain (HEM). Minutes later Karlei Pontarolo got hot from the service line as she reeled off seven points in a row. The Lady Tigers found bare spots on the floor as they opened an 18-7 lead. Hannah Krein’s spike down the line secured the 25-15 win.
The Lady Miners held a 7-3 lead before NCHS fought back with a 12-2 run. Tessa Manning served up five and Pontarolo wasn’t done yet with five more from the service line. ZumBrunnen and Potter’s block secured the second set, 25-12.
It almost all unraveled for Lusk in the third set as unforced errors led to HEM taking a commanding 14-5 lead.
Coach Cora Fitzgerald used her last timeout before the Lady Miners went ahead, 18-9. Battling back, Potter’s tip pulled NCHS within 23-19 and a 4-0 run tied the set at 23.
Neither team could gain an edge as the set moved into the upper 20s before Pontarolo stuffed one back for the dramatic 30-28 win to send Lusk into the state tournament.
“It was exciting to win the match and qualify for state,” Fitzgerald said. “But I’m more proud of how we battled back, because that’s life and when things get hard you have to be more determined and work together.”
NCHS had to face off against the Lingle-Fort Laramie Lady Doggers for third place a few hours later and the familiarity set up a feisty first set.
Long rallies and powerful hitting led up to a tie at 21 before LFL nabbed the 25-22 win.
The Lady Doggers jumped ahead in the second set, but when Krein dropped an ace, it was knotted at a dozen. NCHS moved ahead and Potter served up the final three points in a 25-19 win.
The third set unraveled quickly for Lusk as Lingle-Fort Laramie opened with a 14-3 run. Despite a timeout, the Lady Tigers couldn’t keep up in the 25-9 defeat. Fighting off defeat in the fourth set, Potter smacked one into the floor and Brittin Bruch served up four points for a 7-3 lead. LFL went on a run and held off the Lady Tigers in a 25-19 final score.
These seniors were in fifth grade the last time NCHS qualified for state, and all but Krein and Lainey Single were in school in Lusk back then. None have memories of that team and certainly weren’t born yet when the ’05 team finished in fourth place.
“It was great to see the boys and community come down to support us and their cheering definitely helped,” Krein noted. “All of them being here at 9 a.m. was awesome. And guess what? We’re going to state!”
The Lady Tigers open state tournament action on Thursday afternoon against Little Snake River at 1 p.m. All games are at the Ford Wyoming Center with tournament brackets and ticket prices available at Wyoming High School Activities Association at www.whsaa.org.
“We’re going to spend this week cleaning up some things,” Fitzgerald added. “Snake River is very good – mostly juniors, and they’re a pretty level-headed team. So we need to be ready and have everybody step up at this time of year.”
