One final match with Lovell stood between the No. 4-ranked Powell Panther volleyball team and an undefeated conference regular season. Powell passed its final regular season hurdle Friday with a 3-0 victory in Lovell. 

The Panthers (19-7-1 overall, 6-0 3A Northwest) went into Lovell (13-14-1 overall, 3-3 3A Northwest) knowing it would be a difficult battle against the Lady Bulldogs on senior night.

Going into the match Powell had already wrapped up the No. 1 seed heading into the regional tournament, but knew Lovell would be fighting for every point to try and secure the No. 2 seed for next weekend.

“It was really beneficial for us to play in the Lovell gym so close to regionals,” coach Lesli Spencer said. “It is not an unknown gym to us, but that game so close to regionals will be good for us.”

That battle in the Lovell gym was evident in the first set, with Powell holding a slight 9-8 lead early on.

Lovell pulled ahead mid-set, taking a 17-15 lead and forcing a timeout from the Panthers.

Out of the timeout Powell scored eight straight points before Lovell regained its footing, and held off any challenges to win the first set 25-21.

The Panthers came out with a purpose in the second set, leaping out to a 7-1 lead and forcing a Lovell timeout.

After the timeout, Lovell answered by mirroring the run that Powell opened with — tying the match 8-8.

Powell pushed back ahead, maintaining a lead of three to four points before winning the second set 25-20. Heading into the third set the two teams battled back and forth early until Powell pulled ahead to an 11-6 lead and forced a timeout from the Lady Bulldogs.

The Panthers built on that run, pushing the lead out to 19-11 before another timeout, and finished the match with a 25-12 third set victory.

“We did not have a strong first two sets, playing just well enough to win,” Spencer said. “We came on in that third set and that got me excited. We had a little bit of a lull for a couple of weeks and I think maybe we are coming out of that and coming back to solid play at the right time.”

Addy Thorington led the Panthers with 14 kills, Gretel Opps had 17 assists, while Anna Bartholomew finished with 4.5 blocks and seven kills.

Powell finished with an unbeaten record in its quadrant, dropping only one set in conference play.

REGIONAL TOURNAMENT

All the hard work of the season comes down to two days in Lovell, beginning Friday morning against Pinedale (18-15 overall, 0-6 3A Southwest) at 10 a.m.

Powell defeated the Wranglers at the 3A West Conference Duals earlier in the season in a 3-0 sweep, and looks to repeat in order to advance to the conference semifinals.

“We just saw Pinedale not too long ago and they are a solid team,” Spencer said. “We just have to make sure that we take every team and every game seriously, do our job and play our game and make sure there isn’t any question. If we do that I think we will be OK.”

The winner of that match will move on to play the winner of No. 2 seed Lyman (29-4-1 overall, 5-1 3A Southwest) and No. 3 seed Worland (12-16-1 overall, 3-3 3A Northwest) at 4 p.m.

The loser of the contest will drop down to the consolation bracket, and will play Saturday at 9 a.m. Powell needs to win two matches at regionals to advance to the state tournament.

POWELL 3, LOVELL 0

Kills — Addy Thorington 14, Anna Bartholomew 7, Saige Kidd 5, Gretel Opps 3, Waycee Harvey 3, Sydney Spomer 2

Assists — Gretel Opps 17, Stevee Walsh 12, Alexa Richardson 1, Addy Thorington 1

Digs — Alexa Richardson 12, Gretel Opps 10, Mikayla Graham 7, Addy Thorington 5, Stevee Walsh 4, Anna Bartholomew 2, Saige Kidd 2, Waycee Harvey 1, Sydney Spomer 1

Aces — Addy Thorington 3, Stevee Walsh 2, Anna Bartholomew 1, Gretel Opps 1

Blocks — Anna Bartholomew 4.5, Addy Thorington 3, Saige Kidd 1, Sydney Spomer 1

REGIONAL BRACKET:

FRIDAY

* All games after 10 a.m. are approximate times

Game 1: 10 a.m. No. 1 NW Powell vs. No. 4 SW Pinedale

Game 2: 11:30 a.m. No. 2 SW Lyman vs. No. 3 NW Worland

Game 3: 1 p.m. No. 1 SW Mountain View vs. No. 4 NW Thermopolis

Game 4: 2:30 p.m. No. 2 NW Lovell vs. No. 3 SW Lander

Game 5: 4 p.m. Winner game 1 vs. Winner game 2

Game 6: 5:30 p.m. Winner game 3 vs. Winner game 4

SATURDAY

* All games after 9 a.m. are approximate times

Game 7: 9 a.m. Loser game 1 vs. Loser game 2

Game 8: 10:30 a.m. Loser game 3 vs. Loser game 4

Game 9: Noon Winner game 7 vs. Loser game 6

Game 10: 1:30 p.m. Winner game 8 vs. Loser game 5

Third place game: 3 p.m. Winner game 9 vs. Winner game 10

Championship: 4:30 p.m. Winner game 5 vs. Winner game 6