There’s a little more responsibility on Durango senior outside hitter Avery Rike’s shoulders these days. Rike is easily the Demons’ top-scorer this season and has had other teams’ attention all year. The attention has only intensified since junior outside hitter Aysia Mathews has been out with a lower-body injury for the last four games.
Rike stepped up big time at home against Pagosa Springs on Tuesday night. The Demons had problems with hitting errors in the first set. Rike took over and guided Durango to a first-set win. Durango finished off Pagosa Springs in the second set and cruised to a third-set victory for the win.
Durango improved to 8-6 overall with the 25-23, 25-17, 25-10 win, while Pagosa Springs fell to 7-8 after the loss.
“Once we got into a groove midway through both the first two sets we did well … the kids all got fired up, really in the middle of the second set and then there was the energy on the bench,” Durango head coach Kelley Rifilato said. “We got more clean kills. We were doing things instead of just hitting the ball hard. We were hitting the ball to get a kill and we were hitting off the block. We were hitting a lot of different shots instead of just the same old same old.”
Rike led the way with 14 kills, only three hitting errors and seven aces. Junior Hadyn Neiman had eight kills and freshman Devyn Edwards had six kills. Senior setter Eva Stewart had 29 assists and is only four assists away from 2,000 career assists.
Three hitting errors gave Pagosa Springs a 4-3 lead in the first set before Rike had a kill and two aces for a 6-4 Durango lead. Durango continued to have some hitting errors and this tied the game at 10.
Rifilato said a lot of the hitting errors early on came from the Demons swinging too hard. She said the beginning of the game was erratic with how the Pirates were poking the ball over the net. It took a little while for Durango to calm down and plays its game.
The Demons had plenty of aces in the first set. When Durango didn’t shoot itself in the foot, Rike was dominant in the first set. She had a nice kill at the net and a kill down the middle for a 17-12 lead.
Pagosa Springs battled back with a kill at the net to tie the set at 17. The Demons then responded with four consecutive kills behind the serving of junior Mia Carozza. Pagosa Springs had some good play around the net to cut the Durango lead to 22-21. There was great energy in the gym with a quality crowd supporting Durango and the visiting Pirates.
After some more back-and-forth play between the two teams, it was only fitting Rike finished off the set with the last two kills for Durango for a 25-23 set win.
“She's very competitive, but she likes to keep it fun,” Rifilato said about Rike. “She's so smart, she really is an intelligent student and student of the game. Eva’s (Stewart) sets are all different kinds: Inside sets, outside sets and low sets, she does all kinds of fast things with her and Avery. It's to Avery's benefit and even though people know Avery's going to get the ball, they don't know which set she's going to get.”
Both teams traded kills early in the second set. Neiman had a strong start to the second set with some nice serves and a few quality kills. A Rike kill, an ace by senior Tyler Trujillo and a kill by senior Stella James gave Durango a 10-9 lead.
Pagosa Springs and Durango continued to trade kills and hitting errors and neither team could break away. Then, Rike had a great run of a few kills from the left side for a 20-16 advantage for Durango which forced a Pagosa Springs timeout.
Rike then took over with three aces in a row for a 24-17 lead. Stewart finished off the set with a block for a 25-17 set win.
“They do team stuff where they have to get so many serves in a row as a group, not as yourself,” Rifilato said about the aces. “So they challenge each other and they're doing more and more every day at practice. So they work on it two or three times a day at practice serving. We have really good service. So I'm proud of that.”
Durango started the third set with a 5-1 lead after two aces by Edwards. But Pagosa Springs responded with some good composure with its hits and cut the deficit to 6-5. A great rally ended in a Stewart kill to put Durango up 12-6. The Demons had a lot more composure than they did early in the match and this led to great scoring opportunities and less errors.
Pagosa Springs started to fall apart late with multiple hitting errors and miscommunication. Durango went on a run and went up 20-7. Stewart set up Trujillo for one last kill on the right side and a 25-10 set win.
Durango hits the road to play at Fruita Monument on Friday at 6 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
