A balanced attack once again was key for the undefeated Durango High School volleyball team.
The 10th-ranked Demons dropped an opening set 26-24 to Centauri in a non-league road match Tuesday night. But DHS cleaned up its hitting errors in the game’s final three sets to secure a 3-1 victory with set wins of 25-12, 25-17 and 25-18.
“We had a lot of uncharacteristic errors at the beginning of the game, but we cleaned those up and were really balanced,” DHS head coach Kelley Rifilato said. “Both of our setters did a fantastic job moving the ball pin to pin.”
DHS (6-0, 4-0 5A/4A Southwestern League) had a big serving night, as Paige Ammerman tallied eight aces and Lainey Voss had another five.
Mason Rowland led the Demons with 12 kills, while Kyle Rowland had 10. Leah Wolf chipped in nine kills, and Ammerman had another eight.
Rifilato was happy to see the team’s middle blockers get going and credited Aava Dreger with six kills and two solo blocks with no hitting errors.
“We have worked a lot on transitioning to get our middles opportunities to swing,” Rifilato said. “Tonight, we really saw our middles get a chance.”
DHS will travel for a big rematch Friday at Montrose. The Demons knocked off No. 15 Montrose earlier this season at home in a five-set match.
“We had a ton of hitting errors in that game, 48 I think. That’s crazy,” Rifilato said. “We have worked hard to clean those up. Tonight, we blocked a ton of balls. If we can get that started and keep our balanced offense, it makes it real hard for teams to key on one person.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
