LINGLE – The Lingle-Fort Laramie volleyball stumbled out of the gates with a pair of losses, but as the day went on, the Lady Doggers started to find their rhythm, ending the day with two wins at the annual Lady Dogger Invite last Friday.

“We went 2-2 this weekend as we tried out some new positions and played with some young girls who saw their varsity debut this weekend,” coach Chelsi Jackson said. “After losing so many seniors, we definitely had some things to figure out.”

In the opening match of the weekend, the Lady Doggers fell to the Upton Lady Bobcats 25-22, 22-25, 16-14.

Upton came out swinging taking a 6-2 lead early in the first set. Senior Natalie Speckner slowed the Lady Bobcat run with her first kill of the season.

Lingle chipped away at the deficit, ultimately tying the game at 11 with an ace by sophomore Hallie Fuller. 

The Lady Doggers eventually took a 15-13 lead. LFL held the lead until Upton went on a late 3-0 spurt, to take a 21-19 lead – a lead which the visitors held for the remainder of the set.

In the second set, Lingle scored the first two points and never trailed in the second. Upton tied the set three occasions at three, 17, 19 and 20.

The Lady Doggers took the lead at 21-20, scoring five of the final seven points of the set to force a third and deciding set.

Lingle raced out to an 11-4 lead, forcing Upton to use a timeout. The Laddy Bobcats battled back to cut the deficit to 12-11. Speckner slowed the run with a kill to give LFL a two-point advantage, but Upton scored five of the next six to hand the Lady Doggers their first loss of the season.

In the second game of the day, Lingle fell to Sundance 29-27, 25-20.

The first set was back and forth the entire way. Lingle held a 23-20 lead late, but the Lady Bulldogs scored five of the next six points to take a 25-24 lead. Speckner gave her team a 26-25 lead, but the Lady Doggers couldn’t knock home the set-winning point.

In the second set, Sundance raced out to an 11-4 lead, but the Lady Doggers chipped away at the deficit for the remainder of the set, closing the gap to as few as four late courtesy of Jordynn Speckner.

“We struggled in the first two games to put people in their best positions and lost to Upton 2-1 by just a couple points in each game and to Sundance 2-0 which were again very close,” Jackson said.

Things started to look up in the final two matches of the weekend as Lingle scored 2-0 wins over Hulett and Kaycee.

Against Kaycee, the Lady Doggers scored a 25-13 and 25-16 win, while they capped off the day with a 25-14, 25-6 win over the Hulett Red Devils.

For the tournament, Natalie Speckner led the team in kills with 27, while Skyla Wunder led the team in digs with 62. Leah Foster led the team in assists with 40, and Hallie Fuller led the team in blocks with five.

“Our older girls did a great job being leaders on the score and our young girls did a great job trying out some new positions at a much faster pace than they were originally used to,” Jackson said.”

On Tuesday, Lingle opened 2A Southeast Quadrant play against Niobrara County.

They defeated the Lady Tigers 25-18, 26-24, 25-14.

“All three teams had great evening and didn’t lose a single set at any level to Lusk, the girls came in ready to play,” Jackson said. “One of our sophomores, Skyla Wunder, had an outstanding game leading the Doggers in kills (eight) and ace serves (eight) and second in assists (10). I was really proud of all of our girls this evening, our older girls really stepped up and took control of the game and our younger girls are settling right into the varsity level and are proving themselves.”

Wunder and Foster led the Lady Doggers with eight kills each, while Natalie Speckner added seven. Wunder also tallied eight of the team’s 17 aces, while Foster recorded two blocks. Fuller had a team-best 15 digs, while Foster dished out 13 assists.

The Lady Doggers (3-2 overall and 1-0 in the 2A Southeast) travel to the Big Horn Invite on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 8-9.