Successfully digging Pagosa Springs junior Kaila Limebrook’s attempted kill shot, Bayfield junior Maeli Quintana’s resulting pass back to BHS’ front row couldn’t have been better.
Recipient Avery Shipman’s subsequent set couldn’t have been cleaner.
Targeted teammate Christiana Sutherlin couldn’t have been more ready to clinch not only a wire-to-wire win in set three of Tuesday night’s Homecoming Week match but – and most importantly – the Wolverines’ first 3A Intermountain League win in 2024 after unsuccessful tries against Montezuma-Cortez and Alamosa.
“I got a good ball so I just hit it as hard as I could,” Sutherlin said, breathing much easier after bashing a kill off PSHS’ block to polish off a 25-21, 25-10, 25-19 sweep inside BHS Gymnasium. “I got really excited on that last one; I just really wanted to finish them in three.”
Bayfield improved to 4-6 overall and 1-2 in the 3A Intermountain League with the win. Pagosa Springs fell to 5-5 overall and 1-2 in the 3A IML.
Pagosa Springs head coach Katie Lorenzen used a timeout midway through set three, following a Sutherlin roll shot into a vacated center, then a Sutherlin scoring tip of a PSHS over-pass. With the Pirates trailing 16-10 and seeking their first lead on the scoreboard since 7-6 in set one, Lorenzen’s decision paid dividends – and much too quickly for counterpart Terene Foutz, who burned a timeout after PSHS sophomore Dawson Iverson and senior Aspen Pitcher combined for a scoring block bringing the guests back to 16-13.
BHS junior Grace Barber responded with a scoring tip, but the Wolverines couldn’t preserve their four-point lead as PSHS closed to 18-17. Threatening to steal a great deal of momentum during the very next rally, Pagosa Springs senior setter Sophia Sottek scrambled to save an errant pass from going into the stands behind the visitors’ bench and the Pirates kept the play alive.
Bayfield, however, easily passed the desperation free ball to senior Tanna Owens, who bluffed a jump-set and deftly dumped the ball into the empty center of the opponent’s court. The crowd’s roar indicated that may have been ‘all she wrote’ for Pagosa Springs … but it wasn’t as Iverson answered by tapping a tip just over the net and near the down referee’s feet, embarrassing BHS’ front row and signaling to Foutz that perhaps a timeout was needed to make sure her players were still mentally sharp.
Physical preparedness wasn’t a problem; senior Kambrie Byrd promptly proved that by smacking a kill and the Pirates then shipped two more points Bayfield’s way as senior Cadence Kerns pounded an attack long, then was called for a net violation surprising almost everybody.
PSHS managed one last point, but Byrd then put enough on a tip shot junior libero Charity Domingo couldn’t control along the far sideline, and Bayfield reached match point, 24-19, when hard-hitting Pitcher netted a back-row attack.
“I feel like now we’re all starting to come together as a team again. Definitely clicking a lot more now,” said Barber, perhaps the team’s most reinvigorated member after struggling at home against M-CHS and then at AHS. “Cortez … I think that was probably my (low) point and I thought to myself ‘I have to show out!’ I think I needed to let everything out, and powered up … proved myself, I feel.”
Sutherlin said the team now knows they’ll get scored on and that’s ok. They just need to move on to the next point.
Neither team had finalized individual statistics as of press time.
Bayfield will now step away from competition to prepare for a Sept. 27 trip to La Jara and a showdown with Centauri – last season’s IML champion. Pagosa Springs also plays Centauri next on Saturday.
