The Lady Braves improved to (17-4) on the season with a 3-0 sweep over the visiting Evanston Red Devils on Tuesday night (25-16, 25-22 & 29-27). During the week of Homecoming, the crowd was large, buoyed by a big influx of students and other athletes from the football and cross-country teams.
“I thought in our first set we played really really well,” said head coach Chad Teichert. “Overall, we kind of let up and then let up a little more which bothers me a lot. We made too many service errors. Especially in the third set but in that first set the girls played really well.”
For the most part, Evanston had no answers for senior Olivia Muir who is leading the State of Wyoming in Kills. So far this season Muir has combined with junior Otessa Olsen to form one of the classification’s best outside hitter combos.
As the only Star Valley program making the transition back into the Wyoming 4A Class in the Fall, the Lady Braves have garnered the attention of the voters, ranked #3 in the WyoPreps.com Coaches and Media Poll before sweeping #4 Cody last Friday and Riverton on Saturday.
Teichert says there is still plenty of work to do.
“At this point in the season, in some ways we are a bit better [than I expected],” he said. “But in other ways we’ve got to improve. When they are playing well, they are good. Our number one thing is we’ve got to have better ball control whether its off a serve or a give or a free ball; we’ve got to have better control.”
The team will have some time to work out the details before they hit the court again in competition. The next game on the schedule is a full ten days away when Star Valley makes the trip up the Snake River Canyon on September 28, to take on the Jackson Lady Broncs (0-6). The day after that the Lady Braves return home to host the Green River Wolves (5-9).
The next two weeks will be about raising the level of play before Star Valley hosts #2 Kelly Walsh (13-2) on October 5 and Rock Springs (4-10) on October 6.
Until then, the Lady Braves will try and reach that next plateau of performance.
“When we’re on our game, we’re good,” Teichert concluded. “At times, Olivia hits remarkably good. Kaylee Hale has improved so much it’s remarkable. But we need to sustain high level play over a longer period of time.”
