Playing at the high school level for the first time, the Powell Panther freshman volleyball team adjusted to the speed of the game, learning throughout a 4-17-1 season.

“Like most sports, the pace and competitiveness of volleyball take a big jump up at the high school level,” coach Zac Opps said. “Many of the teams we played this season had more experience playing together, and it took some time for us to adapt and gel as a team. As our team comfort level improved, we made great progress on our team defense, service reception and setter-hitter connections.”

Opps said that throughout the season the Panthers played their best when they “played free and loose, working together with no reservations.”

He added that they continued to grow on the court, especially with more practice as a team, that allowed them to be more confident once they played in games.

“I really think that our players’ confidence grew as we got more practice reps and that confidence translated to better play in matches,” Opps said.

It was a smaller team for the Panthers, as eight freshmen featured in matches.

Award winners as voted on by the team were Mady Agee for Most Valuable Player, Breiyah Bonander as Most Inspirational and Darby McKee as Most Improved.

Agee rotated through as an outside hitter and middle blocker, Bonander was a middle blocker and McKee was the team’s libero.

“When she [Agee] got in a rhythm as a hitter, our team played at a whole other level,” Opps said. “She [Bonander] improved her hitting repertoire this season … Her [McKee’s] back row attacks improved a great deal.”

The team also featured playing time from Addie Gillett, Anh Trinh, Avery Love and Reagan Clifford as well as Stella Schmidtberger, who had her season cut short due to injury.

One of the high points this season came at the Buffalo tournament, where the Panthers found a way into the gold bracket after an early stumble.

“We came out a bit timid and lost our first match of pool play to Buffalo but bounced back to split with Worland and beat Douglas to sneak into the gold bracket,” Opps said. “We were understandably intimidated looking at the strong teams who advanced alongside us.”

Powell regrouped and took down the Bison in a second matchup between the two teams, but came up short in the semifinal against a tough Sheridan team.

While this group showed improvement and continued to grow throughout the season, Opps feels the Panthers will need to continue improving should they want to make an impact at the varsity level in the future as the 3A West continues to be competitive from top to bottom.

“As we saw at the varsity level this season, the 3A West is absolutely loaded and very competitive,” Opps said. “Teams run quick offenses and have explosive attacks. To continue to compete going forward, we will need players who bring intensity to the court, put up a solid block, terminate as hitters and play cohesive defense. The good news is that we made real strides in all of these areas this season, both individually and as a team.”