Continuing early season quadrant play the Powell Panther volleyball team made the short trip to Cody on Thursday to take on the rival Fillies, as the Panthers fell to 1-1 in conference play following a 3-0 sweep.

CODY 3, POWELL 0

(18-25, 15-25, 16-25)

Both teams were looking for a 2-0 start to conference play in Cody as the Panthers (15-5-1 overall, 1-1 3A Northwest) were looking to defeat the Fillies (14-5 overall, 2-0 3A Northwest).

Cody started quickly, forcing Powell to call a timeout trailing 8-3.

Struggles in different areas continued in that first set for the Panthers, as the hosts built on their early momentum and pushed the lead out as far as 19-9 as Powell attempted to string together points.

“I have to give props to Cody, they’re a really solid team,” coach Anna Flitner said. “I think that combined with the nerves and Cody’s big crowd — they have lots of people show up for them, it’s loud.”

Late in the set a small push from the Panthers helped narrow the final scoreline, but the Fillies earned a 25-18 first set win.

The Panthers battled point for point early in the second set, before the Fillies gained momentum and strung together enough points to build a 10-5 lead and force a Powell timeout.

Cody again carried that momentum forward, as Powell struggled throughout the set.

Powell didn’t get closer than six points the remainder of the set, as Cody took a 2-0 set lead after a 25-15 win.

“For us, we have some really strong, solid hitters, but we’ve been able to get away with just swinging away,” Flitner said. “When you have a super strong block like that, it kind of showed us that we need to work a lot more on our shots and to learn how to tool the block and set different options and understand where the block is setting up too so that we can make smart sets when we’re in game-like situations.”

In the third set the Fillies once again built momentum early, making it 9-4 to force a timeout from the Panthers.

Powell did not get closer, as the Fillies completed the sweep with a 25-16 third set win.

Despite the loss, Flitner is hopeful the Panthers can bounce back the next time they play the Fillies in October, with a different mentality as the Panthers will play at home.

“I think all the girls even before were like ‘we’ve never won at Cody, it’s only been at home.’ So I think part of it is a mental piece too, of just knowing what the history has been. We’re kind of just starting in our conference play and Cody’s a tough one to get at the beginning so I’m excited to play them again,” Flitner said. “They’re a really solid team and hopefully it will be a lot more fun game because I think the girls were really hard on themselves and disappointed that they were making the errors that they were making. Regardless of the outcome when we play Cody again, it would be nice to see them at least playing at their best and feeling more confident about what they’re able to do.”

BUSIER WEEK

After a week in which the Panthers had a single match, they will return to a more normal schedule this week while also balancing the busy schedule of homecoming week.

“Homecoming is such an exciting part of the year and for the high school, so I’m really hoping that we can just not have any injuries at all the fun events that are going on at the school,” Flitner said.

As part of the homecoming festivities, the Panthers will continue quadrant play at 6 p.m. on Thursday, welcoming the Lovell Bulldogs (10-7 overall, 0-2 3A Northwest).

“Lovell is a really strong team and we played them in some of the tournament play earlier in the season, we played best out of three and it went three,” Flitner said. “My experience is it’s always harder to beat a team a second or third time around, especially when we play these conference teams several times.”

After playing Lovell on Thursday, the Panthers will make the trip down to Thermopolis on Saturday at 1 p.m. to take on the Bobcats (9-10 overall, 1-1 2A Northwest).