The future of Natrona County volleyball is now the present.

Sophomore setters Staylee Brown and Faith Banks stepped in for senior Hannah Chapman and helped lead the Fillies to a 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-20) victory over Cheyenne East on Thursday at NCHS Gym.

Chapman, the Fillies' usual starter at setter, is out for a couple of days for undisclosed reasons, according to NC coach Sally Nichols.

In the senior's absence, the sophomores had no problems running the Fillies' offense and leading them to the sweep.

"(They played) unbelievable," Nichols said. "That was great. The future looks bright with that kind of play."

NC's style of play uses two setters, so both played relatively equal amounts and both were effective. Brown started and led the Fillies with 19 assists. Banks subbed in early in the match and finished with 11 assists to go along with four aces.

Using two setters allows NC to take advantage of its stable of strong hitters, and the Fillies had no problem with that on Thursday. Ashley Akers led NC with 10 kills and Brittani Casados had nine, despite twisting her ankle in Game 1.

"(Casados) is pretty resilient," Nichols said.

When Akers and Casados weren't dominating at the net, Baillie Gibson (six kills) and Makenzie Bartsch (nine blocks) were taking care of business up front.

The Fillies led the majority of each game and were able to hold off late comebacks by the Thunderbirds in each game. This wasn't the case on Saturday when NC beat East in five games.

"We have a lot of young kids out there, and they played with a lot of heart," Nichols said. "So that was good to see, really good to see."

Despite the loss, East coach Scott Flack was pleased with his team's performance.

"Natrona is very tough and it's a tough place to play at," Flack said. "They have a great crowd behind them, and we were trying some different looks (Thursday). … We were pretty much trying some new things, putting some new players in different positions. It was a good test to come out and play against a really good team and try a couple of different looks."

East was forced to try new looks because the Thunderbirds were without Meghan Sipe, one of the team's best outside hitters, who rolled her ankle against Riverton on Tuesday.

Contact sports reporter David Buck at (307) 266-0596 or david.buck@trib.com

Natrona County 3, Cheyenne East 0

NC 25 25 25

East 21 18 20

NC leaders: Ashley Akers (10 kills, seven blocks); Brittani Casados (nine kills, six digs); Makenzie Bartsch (nine blocks); Brianna Crowe (nine digs); Staylee Brown (19 assists); Faith Banks (four aces, 11 assists).

East leaders: Jasmine Belin (eight kills); Breanna Johnson (seven kills); Chelsie Olsen (21 assists); Andie Schroff (11 digs); Jessica Jester (four blocks); Victoria Christansen (two aces).