Long road trip ends with 0-4 stint in Wyoming

Still adjusting to a new lineup, and with a good portion of the team still recovering from the flu, Garden City volleyball had their work cut out for them in Wyoming over the weekend. 

The Broncbusters dropped all four of their matches, losing to Eastern Wyoming in five, Sheridan in three, Western Nebraska in three and Northeastern in five. 

"Games one and two went really well," Head Coach Jacquelynne Matula said. "The girls did a lot of good things. But again sickness hasn't helped us. We played without one of our setters."

Garden City (3-15, 1-5) lost a marathon five-set match to No. 18 Eastern Wyoming 19-25, 30-28, 12-25, 25-17 and 14-16. 

"They (Eastern Wyoming) were a good team," Matula explained. "We battled them all the way."

In their second match, the Broncbusters appeared tired, losing in three sets to Sheridan 12-25, 14-25 and 15-25. 

"We were really fatigued," Matula said. "We didn't have a lot of energy to push through."

That fatigue lingered into their next two matches, losing in three sets to Western Nebraska 19-25, 13-25 and 16-25. 

But Matula's team bounced back in their final match. 

Garden City jumped out to a two sets to none lead over Northeastern-taking the first two frames 25-23 and 25-20. 

That's when things went south. 

The Broncbusters dropped the final three sets: 16-25, 14-25 and 4-15. 

"It came down to being tired," Matula said. "I will never make excuses, but we should have won that final match. But the girls gave me everything they had."

Garden City has lost nine matches in a row. They return home Monday to face Cloud County. 6:30 p.m. start time at the Perryman Athletic Complex.