LINGLE – The first meeting on the volleyball court of 2019 for the Southeast Lady Cyclones and the Lingle-Fort Laramie Lady Doggers went down to the final point of the match.

When the dust settled, it was the Lady Cyclones who slipped out of Lingle with a 3-2 (15-25, 25-16, 26-24, 15-25, 17-15) victory.

L-FL looked to come out and set the tone early in the opening set.

Lady Dogger senior Ashley Riley tallied the first kill of the night, sparking a 3-1 spurt to open the match. It was a lead which Lingle never surrendered the remainder of the set.

“It was a phenomenal win. Ashley Riley said, ‘when we get the first kill, it gets you pumped up and gets you going’. That’s the team I expect all the time,” L-FL coach Barb Clark said. “We passed lights out. Jesse (White) was able to set everyone she needed to, but when the passes aren’t there, you have to go to what is safe. That’s why we fell behind in that second game.”

Things quickly shifted in the visitor’s favor in the second set.

On the other side of the court, Southeast head coach Roxanne Jolovich’s message to her team in between sets was simple.

“I told them I wasn’t worried about losing that first set because that wasn’t our team,” she said. “If our team showed up and started playing how we are capable, we would win.”

It was something the rest of the Lady Cyclone roster realized, as well.

Southeast jumped out to an early 3-2 advantage behind a block and a kill from sophomore Jordan Stoddard. The remainder of the set, Southeast pulled away for the win to even the match score at one apiece.

“I really liked how they came together and worked together. They realized it couldn’t be just one person out there doing it all. It took all six of them,” Jolovich said. “They started talking more, communicating more, and we eliminated some of our errors we had earlier in the match.”

Southeast went on to win the second set despite neither team being able pull away by more than three points.

Late in the set, the Lady Doggers held a 24-21 advantage, but Stoddard tallied another kill and sparked a 5-0 run to cap off the set win.

In the fourth, L-FL raced out to a 3-0 lead an only trailed on one occasion as Southeast battled back to briefly hold a 5-4 lead.

The Lady Doggers regained the lead at 7-6 and never trailed the remainder of the set.

Through the first four sets, the team who scored first went on to win the set, and L-FL looked to once again set the tone, scoring the first three points of the set.

After a quick timeout by Southeast, the Lady Cyclones chipped away at the deficit and tied the set at six apiece.

The remainder of the set, the teams were tied on seven occasions, but Southeast didn’t take the lead until 13-12.

The teams found themselves tied again at 15, and Southeast scored the final two points of the match with Stoddard capping the match off with an emphatic kill.

“They played hard. We fought to the end. We stayed tough. It just came down to some little mistakes,” Clark said. “I’m proud of them. It was a good fight. That’s how it should be.”

The Lady Doggers will be back in action at home on Friday, Sept. 6 against Sioux County. First serve is scheduled for 4 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Lady Cyclones will have some to work on some things prior to their next action at the Big Horn Tournament on Sept. 13-14.

“We’ll have a lot of good practice time,” Jolovich said. “We have a lot of things we need to work on. Every area of the court, we have something that needs worked on. We’ll get those things fixed, and we’ll be ready.”