Butte County flexes muscles in sweep of Ririe
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TERRETON — Coming off a season in which they finished 17-3 but failed to qualify for the state 1A D1 volleyball tournament, the Butte Pirates are off to another strong start.
Despite struggling at last week’s ThunderBee Classic, Butte County High School entered a Tuesday evening non-conference tilt with the Ririe Bullldogs with an impressive 13-3 record. And not only have no not lost a match outside of the ThunderBee, the Pirates had yet to drop a set away from the Bonneville tournament.
Butte (14-3) continued that run of dominance in the neutral site game, beating Ririe (7-2-2) at West Jefferson High School.
The Pirates bashed their way to a best-of-three straight-set victory, 25-19, 25-17, behind the dominant one-two punch of sophomore Autumn Gamett and junior Paige Williams.
Head coach Gretchen Simpson said that she has come to expect that from the two stars, but said that this game did not provide a full display of her team’s power.
“This was a rough game for us. This was not our best game at all,” Simpson said. “But (the players) are pretty good at just persevering, and making points one at a time.”
Butte normally relies on a more balance attack, but were forced to rely on the Gamett-Williams duo with some of the other players struggling. The Pirates also lost sophomore Addison Pancheri to an ankle injury early in the first set. Pancheri did return to the game in the second set, but was visibly slowed by the injury.
“This was just a day when we aren’t putting it all together,” Simpson said, adding that her team “can really show you something” when it is healthy and firing on all cylinders.
The Pirates got eight kills from Gamett and another four kills from Williams, who added two blocks and a service ace. They finished their Tuesday doubleheader with a 2-0 victory over host West Jefferson (2-8-2).
The Bulldogs, who came back to beat West Jefferson, 3-2, before taking the court against Butte, were paced by sophomore Jadyn Nelson, who contributed four kills and a service ace.