The Lady Pioneers volleyball team played their final regular season games last Monday and Tuesday evenings. The end result: two wins on their home court against Box Elder and Hays-Lodgepole. Monday night's matchup started strong with a quick 7 points off Kiera Galbavy's serves then Eva Wagoner served out the rest of the first set. Big Sandy won 25-3. The next set followed suit with excellent serves and offensive plays by the entire team with a final score of 25-7. The third set started with Jai Baumann tipping the ball and Amiya Griffith hitting to take a 6-1 lead. The solid offensive plays and serving continued with the team having fun and celebrating each point.The game ended with Haley Schwenke serving and Amiya with 2 kills to score the final 5 points of the game, finishing 25-9; and Pioneers winning in 3 sets. Team leaders included: Amiya Griffith with 11 of the team's 25 kills; Eva Wagoner with 8 aces; Angie Sant had 3 of the team's 10 digs as well as the team's lone block; and Jai Baumann with 11 assists.

Tuesday night's games against Hays featured much of the same game play in a quiet weekday gym. The JV team won their last game of the season. (I was mistaken that last week's game was their final.) The final scores were 25-5; 25-11; and 15-8. The Varsity team's final regular season game ended in a win as well. The first set's score of 25-14 featured Kiera's effective serving and the team's offensive volleys, working the net. Hays was a formidable opponent with their scrappy plays and offensive hits, taking the second set 25-18. The Lady Pioneers fought on both offense and defense to play "their game" in the third set. Both teams had good rallies back and forth. In the end, Pioneers took the set 25-23. In the final, fourth set, the Lady Pioneers set up offensive plays and served well, working for every point. The final point off an ace serve by Amiya had the Pioneers winning 25-12 and taking the game in four sets. Team leaders included: Amiya Griffith with 10 kills and 5 of the team's 13 aces; Amiya and Jai Baumann each had 17 digs; Kiera Galbavy with 2 of the team's 3 blocks; and Jai with 28 assists.

The Lady Pioneers are now preparing for the District tournament in Chinook, starting Thursday the 28th. They go into the tourney in 6th seed and will take on the Chinook Sugarbeeters first. Coach Brittany and the team have practiced hard and worked on team bonding throughout the season. They have had several team dinners, a Halloween fun practice, and plenty of laughs.This is a young, strong team of young ladies, confident going into tournaments. By the time this article is published (Wednesday the 27th), it is the last day for the community to contribute to goody bags for the team at the Grocery Store. Show your support by providing a treat for them to take to Districts. Go Pioneers!!