Lady Red Devils are state bound

Josh Hall
Posted 11/1/17

The Evanston High School volleyball team will square off in the state tournament on Thursday.

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Lady Red Devils are state bound

Posted

EVANSTON — The Evanston High School volleyball team was exhausted while riding the bus back from Casper after playing 19 sets in a two-day span over the weekend at the Class 4A West regional tournament at Natrona. 

But the Lady Red Devils were all smiles after they punched their ticket to the state tournament after beating Rock Springs in four sets on Friday night in a must-win game.

“When you earn your way to state, it feels great,” Evanston coach Tera Lawlar “Even better, we’re peaking at the right time. We’re doing things we haven’t done all season.”

Evanston finished fourth in the tournament after falling to Green River in the third-place game on Saturday. 

Now the Lady Red Devils (No. 4 West) are prepared to take on Laramie (No. 1 East) at 1 p.m. Thursday in the opening round of the state tournament at the Casper Events Center. 

The winner will take on the winner of Cheyenne East (No. 3 East) and Natrona (No. 2 West) in a semifinal game at 4:30 p.m. on Friday. The Evanston/Laramie and Cheyenne East/Natrona loser will meet at 1 p.m. Friday in a consolation-round game. 

“It’s going to be a battle,” Lawlar said. “I’m excited, but I’d be lying to you if I told you it wasn’t going to be a huge challenge.”

Evanston, the No. 4 seed in the West at regionals, was already put to the test over the weekend.

The Lady Red Devils claimed a 25-16, 25-15, 26-24 win over No. 5 Rock Springs in the opening round of regional play on Friday before suffering a 17-25, 25-15, 20-25, 25-10, 15-12 loss to No. 3 Natrona later in the day.

“It was a fight and a battle,” Lawlar said. “We did everything we possibly could to take that match, which makes it hard to turn around and play again.”

The loss to Natrona put Evanston in an  elimination game on Friday night against Rock Springs. With their season on the line, Evanston claimed a 25-23, 25-19, 16-25, 25-20 win over the Lady Tigers.

“There was a lot of pressure,” Evanston junior Ajahonna Archuleta said. “It was nerve-racking to be in there. If you didn’t play good, you don’t go to state.”

On Saturday morning, Evanston went up against top-seeded Kelly Walsh. The Lady Red Devils had a 20-17 lead in the first set, but ended up falling to the Lady Trojans, 25-21, 25-19, 25-9.

“We played great and we did some great things against an amazing team,” Lawlar said. “As excited as we were, I think it was also, ‘How much more do we have in the tank?’ I think they battled as great as they could. During that match, we learned a lot about ourselves and the things we could do.”

In the third-place game Saturday, No. 2 Green River claimed a 16-25, 25-14, 25-22, 25-22 over Evanston. 

Green River and Kelly Walsh had already qualified for the state tournament and did not play on Friday.

“We competed well,” Evanston junior Aspen Anderson said. “We were all playing in sync.”