Grizzlies Fall Short In Back To Back Games

The Lady Grizzlies faced two of the state's best 2A teams on back to back nights last week.  Grace first traveled to Murtaugh to take on the Red Devils.  During last season's state title run the Grizzlies defeated the Red Devils in the semi-finals eliminating Murtaugh from the title match.  Grace would go on to be the state runner ups bringing home a second place trophy.  This year however the Grizzlies look like a whole new team with new coaches and several new varsity players.  Despite all of the changes early on in this match it looked like Grace would get the win on the road when they won the first two sets 25-23 and 25-18.  The Red Devils would not go away without a fight however, coming back and winning the next two sets 25-22 and 25-20.  The fifth and final set stayed competitive at the start but Murtaugh would pull away at the end winning 15-9 and taking the match 3-2.

The following night Grace hosted Butte County.  The last time these two teams met on the court was in last years epic battle at the district tournament.  The two teams did battle late into the night during that meeting with Grace getting the dramatic win.  However once again a new year has brought many changes for the Grizzlies while the Pirates from Butte County have had very little change.  Butte has been a top two 2A team in the state throughout this season.  In fact as they entered the Grizzlies gym last Thursday they had not lost a single set on the year nor had they been challenged much.  Early in the first match it looked like Butte would dominate the Grizzlies as they had everyone else.  The Pirates jumped out to a 7-0 lead right off the get go.  Butte continued to pour it on gaining a fourteen point advantage leading 20-6.  The Grizzlies who had looked panicked and out of sorts finally leaned into the assault and put together a string of points of their own eventually getting the score to 16-23.  After another Butte score the Grizzlies gave one last gasp of desperation adding three more scores of their own before going down in set one 25-19.  

Set two was a different story.  This set was very competitive and actually had the advantage in Grace’s favor for much of the match.  Grace earned their first lead of the night at just 2-1 in the set.  Although the game would get tied at 8, 9 and 21 the Grizzlies never trailed until they went down 21-22.  Grace finished the set by getting outscored 6-1 and lost 25-22.  The third set looked more like the first in the early going with Butte jumping out to a big lead.  There would not be a dramatic comeback for the Grizzlies however and they would lose set three 25-14.  There were several players for the Grizzlies who made great plays throughout this match.  Josie Newby had several great digs on big kill attempts from the Pirates.  Also Paisley Barthlome played big at the net with some good blocks and hits for being a little undersized at the position.  Things won't get any easier for the Grizzlies as they travel Thursday to 4A Bear Lake to take on a very good Bears team.