CASPER – Cheyenne East was arguably playing the best it has all season long Saturday.
The Lady Thunderbirds were cruising through their opponents, winning their first five sets of the day at the Wyoming Class 4A state tournament before an injury to junior Kiera Walsh halted the team’s momentum.
Walsh injured her ankle in the third set of East’s semifinal contest against Kelly Walsh. Following the injury, the T-Birds lost their next five sets.
“Any time one of your main players goes down its going to have some kind of effect,” East coach Nicole Quigley said. “She was being a big force at the net … she was a huge part of why we were successful (Saturday).
In their final match of the tournament, the T-Birds were swept by Thunder Basin in the third-place contest, 25-14, 25-11, 25-16.
Thunder Basin never trailed throughout the match.
“We had taken a loss that we had thought we were going to get the win (against Kelly Walsh),” libero Boden Liljedahl said. “We were just bummed and didn’t come out ready to play.”
Kelly Walsh 3 Cheyenne East 2
The biggest match of the day for East came against the three-time reigning state champs. The T-Birds had Kelly Walsh on the ropes, but couldn’t grab the victory, losing 23-25, 16-25, 25-13, 25-18, 15-9.
East struggled early in the opening set, falling behind 11-2. The T-Birds gradually chipped away at the lead before a kill from Ashley Marshall gave her team the little bit of much-needed momentum. The swing and kill started a seven-point run that was capped by a Jenna Merritt kill, giving East an early 1-0 lead in the match.
In the second set, The T-Birds were ignited by a five-point run midway through which forced Kelly Walsh to call a timeout and regroup trailing 18-13, but the timeout couldn’t stymie the momentum. East went on another five-point run a few points later to win the set and maintain complete control of the match.
Kelly Walsh jumped out to a lead in the third set and never gave it up, which is the point where everything started to go downhill for East. The T-Birds’ offensive rhythm that was once there seemed to disappear.
The Trojans won the final two sets to close out the match and advance to the state championship.
“Up until the end of the Kelly Walsh match, we put everything together,” Quigley said. “We played very consistent and we played for each other... those were two of the best matches I’ve seen us play.”
East 3
Rock Springs 0
East started the tournament by upsetting the No. 1 team from the West Conference, sweeping the Lady Tigers 26-24, 25-20, 25-21.
Rock Springs jumped out to quick lead over East in the opening set, taking a 7-2 lead and forcing Quigley to call a timeout.
The T-Birds rallied back, tying the set at 7-7 and the remainder of the game was a battle before East finally prevailed. They never let off the gas and swept through the following two sets.
Liljedahl believed it was one of the best matches of the season for her team.
“We were communicating with each other really well and we just went out there willing to put everything on the line,” Liljedahl said. “And we definitely did that.”
Elysiana Fonseca paced East with 25 kills over the three matches. Walsh had 12 kills and five blocks before suffering her injury. Liljedahl tallied 59 digs and Jenna Merritt added 12 kills for the T-Birds.
Just four months ago, the volleyball season was in jeopardy. To complete a season with so many obstacles means a lot for everyone involved.
“We’re extremely grateful for every opportunity given to us this season,” Quigley said. “We’ve been through battle after battle, whether its injures or (wildfire) smoke and ventilation or COVID … We just continued to work each day and obviously this isn’t the result that we wanted but I’m proud of the girls and the way they showed up (Saturday).
Robert Munoz is a writer for WyoSPorts. He can be reached at rmunoz@wyosports.net. Follow him on Twitter @rmunoz307.
