PRAIRIE CITY – The Prairie City volleyball team is expecting a strong season next year.

The Panthers will be returning their entire team except senior Sherree Wright. Wright was a member of the All-High Desert League second team. That leaves four juniors and five sophomores returning to the varsity team. Junior Caitlin Patten and sophomore Katie Cary earned honorable-mention honors from the HDL.

Prairie City coach Melissa Woodbury said she expects the team to grow next season.

“Sherree is our only senior,” Woodbury said. “On top of all the girls coming back, we should have five strong freshmen coming up from the eighth-grade team. The middle school has been doing pretty good.”

Prairie City went 8-8 overall and 6-5 in High Desert League play this season. They advanced into the HDL tournament after finishing in a three-way tie for fifth place in the league.

Prairie City had a rough road just to make it into the tournament.

Monument/Dayville beat Prairie City 3-2 Oct. 21 in Monument, but the Panthers took the match all the way to the final possible game. Prairie City bounced back and won 3-0 against Long Creek the same night.

The Oct. 21 matches gave Prairie City and Monument/ Dayville 6-5 league records and tied them both with Burnt River in HDL play. The top six teams in the HDL advanced to the district tournament. Due to the three-way tie for the fifth and sixth seeds, a coin flip was used to determine the fifth seed and the remaining teams had to play a tie breaker.

Monument/Dayville won the coin toss and was seeded fifth. Prairie City beat Burnt River 3-2 for the tie-breaker at the Grant Union gymnasium Wednesday, Oct. 22. However, the Panthers fell short in the tournament. Prairie City ultimately won the consolation bracket with a 2-1 victory over Spray in the tournament.

Despite the shortfall in the tournament, Prairie City improved from 6-10 overall and 5-5 in HDL play during the 2007 season. They lost two straight games in the 2007 HDL tournament.