Lady Huskies win regional championship

By MARLYS GOOD
Two down and one to go for the Burlington Lady Huskies. After claiming the conference championship at the conclusion of the regular season, and the 1A West Regional Volleyball Tournament championship with a three-set 25-23, 25-18, 26-24 victory over Cokeville Saturday in Lander, the Lady Huskies have their eyes set on the 1A state title in Casper this weekend.
Burlington and Cokeville are perennial rivals at the regional and state levels. Coach Jerry Patrick said if you consider the dozens of times the two have faced each other in title matches, “You’ll see Cokeville is heavy on wins. It’s kind of a tradition, you win regionals, you lose state. Cokeville didn’t stay with that tradition last year (won both), so we are off the hook this year. I think we caught them by surprise Saturday; we won’t do that at state. They’ll be ready for us.”
Burlington shares the state tournament bracket with Midwest, Hulett and Farson and faces Midwest at 3 p.m. today (Thursday) in the Events Center.
Coming up on the other side are Cokeville vs. Guernsey and Meeteetse vs. Kaycee.
At the regional tournament the road to the title started with a match against Hanna  and Burlington came away with the three-set, 25-15, 25-16, 25-16, win. Patrick got all 12 of his varsity players in the match, a definite plus. The hard-hitting Alanna Powers went down with a knee injury in the final week of the regular season and Patrick scrambled to replace her. Luckily Sadie Neves went in and did a credible job. “She stepped up and played pretty well,” according to Coach Patrick, while admitting that the loss of Powers hurt the team. “She’s one of the kids you want on the floor when things are tight.”
Against Hanna, Brecka Carrizales was 18 of 18 with six aces at the line and 27 digs. Alysha Henderson was 15 of 15 with two aces from behind the line; Paige Neves had 11 kills and two blocks; Lyndsey Wardell had four kills; Jamie Dehl, four; S. Neves three, Rachel Stanworth, three, Janet Davidson, two and Camilla Jones and Kendra Jensen had one kill each. Both Jensen and Davidson had a block.
The Lady Huskies took on Farson in the semifinals, and despite not playing well, won 26-24, 25-22, 25-27. “We had 11 hitting errors in that first game; we cleaned it up a little, but it was not a good match for us,” Patrick said.
Serving was led by Carrizales who was 17 of 17 with an ace; Jones, 12 of 13 with an ace, and Esmeralda Zubia and Henderson who were eight of eight and nine of nine, respectively.
P. Neves had a good night at the net with 25 kills. Wardell chalked up 11, S. Neves, four, and Stanworth, Henderson and Dehl all had two kills apiece. P. Neves had five blocks, Stanworth, two, and Henderson one. P. Neves added 17 digs to her stats.
A few problems cropped up in the Cokeville title match, but the team as a whole played well and “some kids really stepped up,” Patrick said.
And maybe, just maybe, Cokeville overlooked Burlington, despite the fierce rivalry between the two squads. “They acted a little surprised,” Patrick said. “They might have watched the Farson game and we didn’t play well.”
After winning the first two games, Burlington held a 24-18 lead in the third game and then “we let them come back,” and forced the extension, Burlington won, 26-24. If Cokeville had come back and won that game, it would have been a huge change and who knows how it would have ended up. We were lucky to beat them in three.”
Coach Patrick said a big part of the win over Cokeville was due to blocking. “Some times we blocked them three or four times in a row; Cokeville would do a good job picking it up and then we’d block it again. Paige (Neves) had one of her best games of the year; she did everything really well.” The senior had 23 kills (a total of 59 in the three matches), 13 digs and a block.
“We move her around a lot and they had a hard time picking her up. She was hitting around, over and through the blocks.”
The praise was extended right down the line to Carrizales, Henderson, Wardell, Sadie Neves, Stanworth, Esmeralda Zubia. Carrizales was 25 of 27 with an ace, Henderson was nine of nine and Wardell seven of seven with two aces. Carrizales had 30 digs, S. Neves and Wardell, 12 each, P. Neves had a stuff and Henderson, two stuffs.
“I thought we had a good digging game; we dug some hard hits. Some individuals had their best games of the year, but as a team we can play better.”
If the Lady Huskies, and Cokeville, avoid any upsets, they’ll meet again Saturday afternoon in Casper and prove once and for all, for this season at least, which team is the class of 1A.
“They’ll be ready for us. But even if Cokeville is more focused, we know we can play better also. This team is so athletic, so talented; it would be a shame if they didn’t (win it all). If we show up to play, we’ll do fine,” Patrick said.