Lady Panthers have eyes on league title
RANGELY I Friday, the Lady Panthers will play their final regular-season volleyball match.
But that doesn’t mean the season is over. Far from it.
Rangely travels to Kremmling to play West Grand on Friday. The following week is the district tournament, followed by regionals and followed by state.
“If we win on Friday, we’ll win the league outright and have a bye on Tuesday (Oct. 26) and just play on Saturday (Oct. 30),” said Rangely coach Jimmie Mergelman.
The Lady Panthers played their final two home matches last weekend. At least for the regular season. Rangely will host the district tournament.
Both of last weekend’s matches were against Western Slope League opponents and the Lady Panthers won both matches in three games. For homecoming last Friday, Rangely beat rival Meeker 25-12, 25-10 and 25-10.
“The girls were ready to go; they were excited,” Mergelman said of the match against Meeker. “I think with homecoming and the rivalry, they stepped it up and I thought they did a nice job.”
The next day, Rangely hosted Paonia and again won in three sets, though the scores were closer: 27-25, 25-22 and 25-21.
“It was a good match,” Mergelman said. “We didn’t play horrible against Paonia, but we didn’t play our best, either.”
But they played well enough to win, something they’ve been doing all season long. The Lady Panthers have lost just once, and that was back during the opening weekend of the season. Last weekend’s victories improved Rangely’s record to 15-1 overall and 9-0 in the league.