EVANSTON — In the first year of expansion to the new 16-team Class 4A division, Evanston Red Devil volleyball is among the elite eight headed to state. And they earned it, some might say, the hard way. After taking a two set lead against the Cody Fillies, Evanston dropped the next three at the 4A West Regional Tournament in Rock Springs on Friday, Oct. 26. All five sets were close, (20-25, 18-25, 25-17, 25-21, 15-11). 

The tourney format is double-elimination and the Evanston girls likely would have desired to get back out on the court as soon as possible to right the ship, but they would have to wait until Saturday morning at 9 a.m. to do so.

“I’m very proud of our team,” head coach Tera Lawlar told the Herald.

“We played great on Friday. The girls did things that we’ve been talking about all season long. It was the culmination of front row and back row working in tandem,” Lawlar added.

Evanston and Cody had squared off just three weeks prior during Homecoming week at EHS in a match that forced three of the four girls named as Homecoming Royalty — Queen Kayli Sharp and attendants Kori Deru and Kaylie Critchfield — to miss the Homecoming parade. That Oct. 5 meeting also went all five sets and was won by the fifth-ranked Fillies, (22-25, 25-18, 25-18, 24-26, 16-14) at Red Devil Gym.

“Cody’s the real deal,” Lawlar said. Indeed. The Fillies of the 4A Northwest quadrant finished the regular season at 25-4. Two of their four losses were to top-ranked Kelly Walsh in conference/quadrant play and the other two setbacks came against second-ranked Star Valley. The Fillies are led by Paige Powell, who will play basketball at the University of Wyoming. Powell transferred to Cody from Class 1A Encampment for her senior campaign, so her volleyball prowess was somewhat unknown.

“She’s an all-around phenomenal player,” Lawlar said of Powell. 

“It seems like she’s in 90 percent of their sets even when she’s playing on the back row. She’s the type of player who can do things that can make a gym go quiet in astonishment while we all realize,’Wow, that just happened,’” Lawlar avowed.

The Evanston coach was equally amazed by her own girls for their grit and determination.

“We played very resilient and with purpose,” Lawlar said.

“We never gave up and our girls were coming to realizations of what we’ve been striving for all season long. They were saying things like,‘This is so much fun. This is what it’s all about. This is why we worked so hard,’” she added.

The loss sent Evanston to the bottom half of the bracket where they knew they would have to come back to win two matches in succession to earn a state tournament bid, but it bolstered their belief in themselves as a team capable of competing with anyone.

“We were in sync, and when it was finally over, there were tears, but there was a new sense of confidence that permeated our team,” Lawlar stated.

“We couldn’t have asked for more as coaches. Our girls left it all out on the floor.”

Lawlar pointed to two recent setbacks which resulted in having the opposite effect on her team’s faith in themselves — being swept by Green River on the Lady Wolves’ “Senior Night” on Oct. 11, followed by their own “Senior Night” loss in four sets to Rock Springs on Oct. 19. Those two losses caused the team’s confidence to wane, so despite losing to Cody, their belief was restored.

“Those were definitely our worst games of the season. Both games were ugly. We didn’t play well,” Lawlar shared.

Lawlar stated that Rock Springs gave Star Valley quite the fight in their opening round matchup, but figured her team’s newfound confidence, coupled with their maturity and leadership would be enough to take care of the youthful Rock Springs squad in a loser-out match. Evanston squared off with the host team on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. and defeated the Lady Tigers to stay alive, (25-22, 19-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10).

Next came their third meeting of the season with the Lady Wolves in another loser-out showdown. The teams had split in Southwest Conference play and had identical 3-3 conference records, but the Lady Wolves received the second-seed for the regional tourney because they had defeated Evanston in three sets, while Evanston’s victory over Green River took all five to complete, even though Red Devil volleyball had a superior overall record.

“I don’t know what came over them against Green River,” Lawlar said.  

“Maybe they were just tired of playing. They wanted to punch their ticket. They just needed to get it done.”

Though the sets were all close, Evanston swept Green River in three sets to earn a state tournament bid, (25-20, 25-21, 25-23) though they had to come from behind to accomplish the task at hand.

“We were so driven and determined, just gritty and confident against Green River,” the coach affirmed.

The state tournament berth win vaulted Evanston into the match for third and fourth place against Cody, Evanston’s third match of the day on Saturday.

“Unfortunately, I think our tank ran out against Cody,” Lawlar said, “but our play at the regional tournament was truly a team effort. It was so much fun and just a great feeling.”

Cody picked up a three-set victory, though two of the sets were very close, (25-23, 25-8, 26-24).

Evanston will enter the state tournament as the fourth seed from the west to face the top seed from the 4A East in the Lady Plainsmen of Laramie. Red Devil volleyball is 17-17 on the season while Laramie is 22-10. The match will be the third in the opening round of the state tournament at 6 p.m. on the arena floor of the Casper Events Center on Thursday, Nov. 1. 

Other matches include No. 4 from the east, Cheyenne East, vs. No. 1 from the west, Kelly Walsh, at 3 p.m.; No. 3 from the west, Cody, vs. No. 2 from east, Thunder Basin, at 4:30 and No. 3 from the east, Natrona County, vs. No. 2 from the west, Star Valley, scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Mountain View and Lyman

The 3A West regional tournament was hosted by Mountain View High School on Oct. 26-27, with the host team earning a state bid with its second place finish to archrival, Lyman. The Lady Eagles entered the tourney with an unblemished 30-0 record and emerged still perfect, with a 33-0 mark. Lyman will represent the west as the top seed in the 3A state tournament in Casper. Lyman swept both Lovell and Pinedale to advance to the title match against Mountain View, which took all five sets, but Lyman came out on top, (25-17, 26-28, 24-26, 25-19, 15-10). Lyman will face Torrington in opening round action at 4:30 p.m. and on the other side of the bracket, the Lady Buffs are scheduled to play at 6 p.m. against Buffalo.