PINEDALE – The Pinedale Lady Wranglers had a busy week with three games.
Rock Springs
On Tuesday (September 30), Pinedale traveled to play (4A) Rock Springs, winning an exciting five-set match, 3-2.
The Lady Wranglers won the first set, 25-21. Rock Springs came back to take the second set, 25-20. Pinedale responded to dominate the third set, 25-19. While Rock Springs took the fourth set, 25-22, the Lady Wranglers pulled out all the stops to win the tiebreaker fifth set, 15-5.
Serving aces won the Rock Springs game. Sophomore Remedios Mata and senior Erin Murphy both tallied three serves, senior Alyxis White two and seniors Megan Boulter and Charlotte Hawke one each.
White passed well with an amazing 2.6 passing rating, followed by Hawke passing 2.14 and Mata 2.0. It has been a team goal to get a passing rating of 2.2 and the Lady Wranglers continue to get closer with a 1.99 overall rating on Tuesday.
The Rock Springs match was the first where the team reached its goal of having a balanced offense with three hitters performing well. White recorded 19 kills and a .381 hitting percentage. Junior Roxanne Melinkovich posted 18 kills and a .324 percentage. Hawke collected 15 kills for a .278 percentage.
Murphy delivered 49 assists and 11 digs. Boulter and Hawke also played great defense with 13 digs and 17 digs, respectively.
Melinkovich totaled six blocks – two short of the school record set last year.
Sophomore Kabree Ziegler also came in to serve well.
Big Piney – Pink Night
On Thursday (October 2), the Lady Wranglers hosted the annual cross-county matchup against Big Piney for Pink Night.
The community came together to honor Bo Danze, an outstanding 2025 Wrangler graduate who is battling Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. It was a special tribute to him and the community showed a great outpouring of support.
Pinedale swept Big Piney on Thursday, 25-18, 25-16 and 25-15.
In the second set of the Big Piney match, our senior outside hitter Charlotte Hawke sustained a knee injury and could not finish the game. The team adjusted to her absence, stepping up to finish the game in her honor.
Melinkovich moved to outside and tallied 12 kills and two aces. Sophomore Oakley Francis came in as middle and collected three kills, four digs and one block.
Junior Shaye Mills rose to the occasion as right side, serving four aces, passing at a 2.25 rating and adding three kills, one block and five digs.
Murphy posted 30 assists as setter for the Lady Wranglers against Big Piney, along with 16 digs.
Lyman
On Friday, the Lady Wranglers hosted Lyman in a conference game for Senior Night – the last home game before Pinedale hosts regionals late this month.
The Lady Wranglers came out strong and beat Lyman in three sets, 25-19, 25-18 and 25-23.
White led the charge against the Eagles and achieved the highest possible passing rating of 3.0. The senior also reached an impressive .300 hitting percentage with 12 kills.
Melinkovich had 17 kills and hit .250.
Mills stepped up again on Friday, leading from the service line with two aces. Mills also passed at a rating of 2.2 and added three kills for a .273 hitting percentage.
Murphy added 33 assists and three digs to the stat sheet.
Francis, playing middle, contributed four kills for a .333 percentage, plus two blocks against Lyman. Francis served 22 times throughout the week without missing.
Junior Anndee Covill added two kills against Lyman for a total of nine for the week, hitting .400.
Each member of the Pinedale team had a positive hitting percentage this week (meaning they had more kills than errors). Limiting errors has been a goal that continues to improve.
Pinedale is now 2-1 in the 3A Southwest as they go in to conference duals this weekend in Worland to play four tough teams from the Northwest – Cody, Powell, Lovell and Worland.
The Lady Wranglers are 15-8-1 overall.
