Lady Cowboy’s Start Tournament Play
Oct 16, 2024 11:48AM ● By Jody Reeves
Kymberli Jensen sets the ball up during this home game. Photo credit Jamie Hill.
Last week, the North Gem volleyball team finished off the regular season by hosting Taylors Crossing. With both teams sitting near the bottom of the Rocky Mountain Conference, a trip to the play-in round of the district tournament this week was a sure thing. However, seeding still needed to be decided, and it never hurts to go into a tournament on a winning streak with some confidence. North Gem had the home court advantage and seemed to have the edge in talent as well. The Lady Cowboys easily took the first set winning 25-16. The second set would be much more competitive with the Eagles edging out the Cowboys 26-24 evening up the match at one set each. North Gem turned things back on in the third set and ran away with it winning 25-14. With the 2-1 set lead the Cowboys just needed one more set win to take the match. That's just what the Cowboys did. The set was a little tighter but the Cowboys grabbed the win 25-21.
With the win North Gem earned the seventh seed in the eleven team conference tournament. Round one of the tournament takes place on Thursday with high seed hosting. North Gem will be facing the ten seeded Sho-ban Lady Chiefs. That game will be held at North Gem High School at 6:00 p.m. In their only regular season meeting the Cowboys easily defeated the Chiefs in three sets holding Sho-Ban to single digits in each set.
Following the opening round on Thursday night the remainder of the tournament will be held on the neutral court of Shelley High School beginning on Saturday. If North Gem wins on Thursday night they will face Mackay at 11:30 on Saturday. A loss will put them into the losers bracket against the loser of Leadore and Challis. No matter where they land on Saturday they will have their hands full. The Cowboys have only won a total of one set against those three teams this season. That being said the Cowboys seem to be on a roll as of late and are primed to pull off an upset over any one of the teams. Cowboy fans get ready. Playoff time is here!
