East sweeps South in crosstown matchup
Sep. 18—CHEYENNE — Cheyenne East didn't play its best during a three-set loss to top-ranked Laramie on Thursday night.
But it didn't take long for the Lady Thunderbirds to right the ship as they turned the tables and swept Cheyenne South 25-8, 25-15, 25-14 on Friday night at South.
"They came out and let (Thursday) go and worked together as a team and put stuff back together again," East coach Nicole Quigley said. "It was great to see that camaraderie that we have."
In a role reversal from Thursday, East jumped out to an 11-2 advantage in the opening set following a kill from senior Kiera Walsh. The T-Birds continued to build on that advantage, allowing only six more points during the opening set, and an Elysiana Fonseca kill gave East the 1-0 match lead.
"The biggest thing for us was trusting our abilities and trusting each other," Quigley said. "We have all the talent in the world, but at the end of the day, everyone has to be on the same page ... them communicating early and giving each other feedback made a night-and-day difference."
South (2-11 overall, 1-1 Class 4A Southeast Quadrant) opened the second set with the lead and held steady until East went on a four-point run and took a 10-9 lead after a Walsh kill.
Hitting errors from South and East's ability to control the ball allowed the visiting team to pull away midway through the second set. The T-Birds went on a nine-point run to take a 2-0 match lead when Bradie Schlabs set Fonseca up for another set-ending kill.
The Lady Bison didn't let anything easy get by, however.
"That first game, right off the bat, it was like, 'Oh, we're here to play,'" South coach Cherisa Applehunt said. "That second game, we made some adjustments and really put some of (our) players against their athletes and showed that we could compete."
East (11-3, 1-1) continued to control the net and find success with its swings, where eight of its final 10 points came from attacks as it led the final set wire-to-wire for the win.
"We weren't really ready for their middles," Applehunt said. "We practiced all week preparing for some of their main hitters ... for them to have the pace of the game that kind of sets the tone when it's hit-for-hit — it was something that was kind of a shocker for (us)."
Fonseca had a match-high 16 kills and added two blocks. Jenna Merritt had 11 kills and two blocks, and Walsh added five kills and 25 assists for East.
Kayla Lesh led South with five kills and one block. Serenity Wilcox added 10 kills and eight digs.
East's offense was more fluent Friday, and the .432 hitting percentage compared to Thursday's percentage of .126 proved it.
"Yesterday, we didn't come out to compete, and us not passing good yesterday affected us a lot," Fonseca said. "We came out with more fire to redeem ourselves. ... We played more together, we played for each other and not ourselves."
Robert Munoz is a writer for WyoSports. He can be reached at rmunoz@wyosports.net. Follow him on Twitter @rmunoz307.
