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Demons fight the battle to lose the war

No. 4 Montrose finishes its undefeated SWL championship

The third set felt like lives depended on it.

The Durango High School volleyball team trailed No. 4 Montrose 2 games to none entering the third set.

The Demons fell behind 18-14 in that set, too.

Then, something clicked for the Demons in their final home game of the regular season. They battled back to tie the set at 20 on a Laura Lieb kill and took their first lead since the first set on a Montrose four-contacts possession.

“It was just so much fun. We finally picked up our intensity, and the team was playing well together, fighting together,” DHS junior Maddie Robertson. “It’s fun to see what we do in practice translate to the game.”

The set was far from over, though.

Neither team gained more than a one-point edge for 23 serves, as the score escalated past the typical game-winning 25 because of the win-by-two rule.

DHS fought off a Montrose match point at 28-27, and the Demons survived 32-30.

“We always put up a good fight, but those last four or five points, however many it was, was the best we’ve ever fought,” said DHS senior setter Logan Clark, daughter of Letty and Randy Clark. “We all just gave it all.”

They still had to play another set after the emotion died down, though.

Montrose jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the fourth set and closed out DHS 3-1 (25-14, 25-14, 30-32, 25-15) to finish its Southwestern League season as the undefeated champions.

“We had a tough match (Friday) night against Cortez, so I think that definitely gave us confidence after that third set here to come back,” Montrose head coach Shane Forrest said. “I think we lost our focus in the third set.”

Focus wasn’t an issue for the Indians in the other three sets.

They held serve for runs of at least six consecutive points in all three sets they won, and they went on a 9-0 run in the first set to take the lead away from DHS.

“When you’re playing the No. 4 team in the state, you know they are consistently playing at a high level, and we were on a roller coaster (Saturday), highs and lows,” DHS head coach Colleen Keresey said.

Robertson had a team-high 10 kills for DHS and added 16 digs for the double-double. Senior libero Sarah Lawton led the Demons with 41 digs, and Clark dished out 32 assists.

Durango’s four seniors played their final home match of the regular season Saturday but were honored with the traditional senior-day ceremony in Friday’s 3-0 win over Grand Junction.

DHS (13-8, 6-3 SWL) still has one more match in the regular season: The Demons will play Montezuma-Cortez on Tuesday in Cortez with a chance to clinch SWL runner-up.

“We’re definitely going after Cortez,” Clark said.

kgrabowski@durangoherald.com

Durango Demons

Durango High School

Volleyball

Senior Day

Oct. 17-18

Logan Clark

Sarah Lawton

Laura Lieb

Hailey Warren

Durango Herald



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