Lyman comes from behind to beat Green River

Josh Hall
Posted 10/11/17

After losing their first two games to the Class 4A Lady Wolves (16-10), the Lady Eagles bounced back to claim a 24-26, 20-25, 25-15, 26-24, 15-7 win against Green River on Tuesday night.

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Lyman comes from behind to beat Green River

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 LYMAN — The Lyman High School volleyball team’s record speaks for itself.

The Lady Eagles, ranked fourth in Class 3A are 19-4 and are riding a five-game winning streak. But Lyman head coach Brecia Hansen still believes her team has room for improvement.

“We’re moving in the right direction, but we still have a lot of things to fix and it’s late in the season,” Hansen said on Tuesday night after the Lady Eagles beat Green River in five sets. “I don’t think we’ve peaked. We’re still learning. That is encouraging to me because we are already playing so well. I still think we have a lot of room to grow.”

After losing their first two games to the Class 4A Lady Wolves (16-10), the Lady Eagles bounced back to claim a 24-26, 20-25, 25-15, 26-24, 15-7 win against Green River.

Lyman let a 24-20 advantage slip away in Game 1, and the Lady Eagles were tied with Green River at 18 in Game 2, before the Lady Wolves pulled away.

“I felt like my kids got scared and that was the biggest thing,” Hansen said. “I kind of went raw, raw going into Game 2, saying we can do this and we just went out and played bad. Between games two and three, I had to get on them, and I generally don’t get cranky with those kids, because they are always working hard. But I had to get after them.”

The Lady Eagles responded to the challenge in Game 3.

Green River held a 24-23 lead in Game 4, but Lyman got back-to-back kills from Kassidy Nelson and McKailey Bradshaw to take a 25-24 advantage. The Lady Eagles closed out the game on an unforced error by Green River to force a Game 5.

“We just had to stick together,” Lyman junior McKinley Bradshaw said. “We knew we were capable of winning. We just needed to come together as a team, which we did and pulled out the win.”

Green River and Lyman were tied at four in the deciding game, but that’s when the Lady Eagles started to pull away.

Nelson, McKailey Bradshaw, and McKinley Bradshaw combined for seven kills in the final set to pace the Lady Eagles, who swept a four-game conference dual over the weekend, giving Lyman its fifth straight win following Tuesday’s come-from-behind victory.

“Lyman is a really good team,” Green River coach Rikki Shantz said. “They have three really good hitters, so it’s kind of hard to stop them.”

Nelson finished with 30 kills and 13 digs, while McKinley Bradshaw tallied 26 kills and 20 digs. McKailey Bradshaw added 14 kills and 17 digs. Kylie Walker and Olivia Smith combined for 55 assists to pace the Lady Eagles.

“I’m feeling really good about how we’re playing overall right now,” Hansen said. “I’ve got a group of kids that are really competitive and really athletic. They just want to win.”

The Lady Eagles dropped their season opener to Star Valley and fell to Campbell County in the third game of the season. Lyman has also fallen to Buffalo and Cokeville on the year.

But the Lady Eagles are confident they are making strides with each game. And they don’t plan that changing.

“We’re playing with a lot more confidence than we did at the beginning of the year,” McKinley Bradshaw said. “That’s our goal at every practice — to keep improving and keep building on what we already have going for us.”