The Lady Panther volleyball team finished the regular season with a pair of big wins, downing Manhattan 25-12, 25-12, 25-14 on Thursday and defeating Big Timber in three on Saturday, 25- 11, 25-10, 25-8. That gave the Panthers an 8-2 conference record for the season, the only losses coming to Three Forks, which topped the league at 10-0. The two teams met a third time at the JHS tournament, where the Panthers finished ahead.
Both teams, along with the rest of the conference, will be at the District 5B Volleyball Tournament in Belgrade this week, with the top three teams advancing to divisional play in Red Lodge November 2-4. The first district tourney match for the Panthers will be at 1 p.m. this Friday against the winner of a 10 a.m. match between Manhattan and Whitehall. The tournament starts at 10 a.m. Friday and goes most of the day, continuing with play most of the day Saturday.
At the final week match with Manhattan, the Panther seniors – Jadyn Armstrong, Ellie Evertz, Emily McGinnis, Aubrey McMaster, Katy Twichel, and Leah Vossler – were honored on Senior Night. That very talented group took to the floor to start the Panthers in the right direction, moving out to a 5-0 lead right away.
Even though the Tigers came back to even the score, and even took the lead briefly, the Panthers were too much for the visitors, easily winning 25-12 in the first game, 25-12 in the second and 25-14 in the third.
Throughout the match, McGinnis and McMaster were a nearly flawless duo, with McMaster setting them up and McGinnis knocking them down. McGinnis recorded 17 kills, many of them coming on the 25 assists by McMaster. McGinnis also inked 2 aces, 4 digs and 4 blocks, and McMaster delivered 3 aces, 1 kills, 2 digs and 5 blocks in addition to the assists.
Evertz and Vossler added their strengths at the net, with Evertz collecting 1 ace, 2 kills, 1 dig, and 5 blocks while Vossler served up 2 aces, 1 kill, 2 digs, and 1 block. While the seniors were doing their part to advance the Panther cause, sophomore Haydin Henschel and junior Simonie Mendenhall were also forces to be reckoned with at the net. Henschel slammed down 6 kills along with 2 digs and 1 block. Mendenhall added 4 kills and 5 blocks. Another 2 blocks came from Twichel, who also had 3 digs.
In the back row, Emma Stout and Abby Rosenbaum were formidable on defense, coming up with 11 and 9 digs respectively. Others keeping the ball alive were Armstrong with 4 digs, Ashley Pankratz and Kaela Rosenbaum with 3 each, and Hannah French with 1 impressive dig.
The Panthers continued their winning ways on the road for the final regular-season contest at Big Timber. McGinnis led the Panther offense with 13 kills, 2 aces, 1 block and 3 digs. Evertz also hammered down her share of kills, catching the Herders off guard with 8 kills, 1 block, 1 ace, 2 digs and 1 assist. Twichel added another kill to the Panther arsenal, as did Mendenhall, who also had a pair of blocks. McMaster continued to star as a set- ter, recording 23 assists plus 1 kill and 2 digs.
Vossler stood tall for the Panthers at the service line, delivering 3 aces, as well as at the net where she recorded a kill to add to 3 digs and 3 assists. With fewer returned balls from the Herder side, the defensive backrow was not as busy as usual. Stout and Kaela Rosen- baum each tallied 4 digs, Armstrong added 2 more, and Abby Rosenbaum another. Armstrong and Stout each also served up an ace.
Standings in league play at the end of the regular season have Three Forks out front 10-0, followed by Jefferson at 8-2, Manhattan at 6-4, Broadwater at 3-7, Sweet Grass County at 2-8, and Whitehall at 0-10.
