DENVER – Happy as they were to be one of an impressive three teams from the Intermountain League still striving for the grandest prize, Bayfield’s players nevertheless knew that Alamosa or Centauri, perhaps more than any other enemy at the 2024 CHSAA Class 3A State Volleyball Championships, could decide their collective fate.
As fate would have it, the Wolverines locked up with the latter bright and early Friday morning inside the Denver Coliseum and quickly learned they’d need to expend every bit of energy their breakfasts could have provided.
Sophomore Vivien Clance tossed up the match’s first serve and after CHS committed a net violation giving Bayfield the ice-breaking first point, curved her second serve just inside the near sideline and into CHS’ bench for an ace.
“It was definitely a surprise,” said Clance about being picked by head coach Terene Foutz to begin the battle beneath the season’s brightest lights. “But I’m so honored that I was able to; I just wanted to fight as much as I could for the team.”
Her third serve nearly mimicked its predecessor but hooked out of bounds, and the Falcons – put into survival mode the previous afternoon by AHS – then blocked senior Christiana Sutherlin to tie the score at 2-2. Both sides could sense a tiebreaking fifth set would ultimately be needed to decide a victor.
Trailing 12-seed Centauri two sets to one, 11-seed Bayfield had managed to erase a 14-9 deficit in the fourth set, then gain a 17-16 advantage via an off-balance tip shot by senior setter Tanna Owens, reach set point at 24-21 via a booming crosscourt kill by junior Evelette Hollibaugh. Bayfield avoided disaster via a Hollibaugh roll shot – after Foutz used a timeout – over CHS sophomore Kenadie Wilfong securing a tense 25-23 win.
Junior libero Lauren Rich would put Bayfield up 3-1 with back-to-back service gems targeting Centauri sophomore Denver Holman to start the fifth set. She then served long and CHS sophomore Kynlei Curtis drilled a crosscourt spike retying the set at 3-3.
Bayfield junior Grace Barber quickly regained the Wolverines a 5-4 advantage and Falcon sophomore Analynn Dwyer gave away a point by hitting into the net.
Spectators throughout the awakened arena were certainly seeing how life in the IML regularly appears. And for the Wolverines, how cruel it often is.
Clance, who’d held serve and fired two aces during Bayfield’s aforementioned fourth-set comeback, sailed a serve long and, with BHS – effectively rallying since Centauri’s 25-19 win in set one – still up 6-5, nobody could have predicted the momentum shift about to occur.
Barber would be called for a carry/throw on an attack following Falcon junior Joselyn McCarroll’s first serve in the race to 15. With the score knotted at 6-6, Bayfield then made three more costly mistakes, giving CHS a 9-6 lead. Dwyer then made a morale-crushing scoring block. Centauri relied upon their own exploits to initially reach match point at 14-6 via Curtis’ kill off BHS senior Audrey Knapp’s block, followed by a Curtis deep-corner kill.
The Falcons hastily committed a net violation removing McCarroll from the service line after a solid nine-point stay and ending a match-snatching 10-0 run. Bayfield couldn’t capitalize; after Barber served, CHS summoned hot hand Curtis, who rolled a shot over BHS’ block and triggered a bench-clearing celebration.
“It did kind of surprise me,” BHS junior setter Avery Shipman said about the match lasting as long as it did. “I feel like we were a little bit off, but I also think that they fought really hard. It was a good battle and … I just love playing people from our ‘hometown’ league; it’s fun to see how far they’ve really made it.”
The 19-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-23, 7-15 loss wrapped up an incredible one-year turnaround for Bayfield, which finished 16-11 overall after going 6-17 in ’23 and missing postseason play entirely.
“Yes, we lost that (fifth) set but at the same time, we went to state, won regionals and we beat Durango – we’ve done things we never thought we’d do,” said Barber. “Compared to last year, we’ve stepped up a lot and I’m very proud of all of us. It’s a big deal for our team.”
