Once the lead was theirs, the Volleycats never let it go.
Even when head coach Jennifer Seibel filtered in her available reserves Thursday afternoon, Ignacio’s play didn’t falter. The Volleycats beat Del Norte, 3-1, for their first victory of the season.
Ignacio improved to 1-1 overall while Del Norte dropped to 2-1 overall.
In the fourth set, Del Norte simply couldn’t keep up after junior Emma Parra, who’d began the set on serve, smacked an attempted back-row kill long giving IHS, leading two sets to one, a 1-0 advantage which only grew.
Junior setter Kelly Sirios then scored with back-to-back serves the Tigers couldn’t handle and after DNHS sophomore Brynley Brown managed to pound a kill, the ’Cats truly began separating after Del Norte sophomore libero Julia Trujillo netted the ensuing serve.
For checking in off Seibel’s bench was Lily Quintana, summoned to stabilize about the only soft spot in the home team’s rotation. After receiving no court time in the four-set loss to M-CHS, the junior made up for lost time with a set-and match-breaking six-point stay on serve, with four fast floaters causing immediate breakdowns in DNHS’ plans.
Quintana’s ace of Trujillo, increasing IHS’ lead to 10-1, was especially notable because her very next offering went wide of the same location by mere inches, but afforded Quintana a nice round of applause for her work.
“She’s been working really hard in practice with her serving,” Seibel said. “She’s fast, competitive and she offers a consistent float ball, so I went to her as my go-to server when my middle was struggling with hers. I needed some consistency … and looking at my bench, she came to mind! She performed well.”
The Tigers never came closer than eight points the rest of the way, before senior Autumn Gallegos’ netted attack put Ignacio on set – and match – point, 24-10. After IHS junior Maliyah Martinez tried ending the contest with a kill sailed long, DNHS sophomore Ady Ruybal then netted a failed tip after Ignacio hesitantly received hard-hitting Brown’s serve and overpassed it straight back to the visitors – defeated 25-20, 17-25, 25-17, 25-11.
“With Cortez it seemed like we were kind of sleeping at first,” IHS junior Lainee Bradley said. “We started to warm up … and it just went downhill again. So yesterday (in practice) we just really focused on serve-receive and basically just the tiniest little things to critique, and I think tonight we were just really awake and ready to play.”
Brown downed a kill on the very first exchange following Sirios’ match-starting serve, then scored with a tip shot moments later – putting Del Norte up 2-1.
It would be DNHS’ last lead in the first frame; Ignacio got going with a Martinez roll shot down the line, a Bradley serve the Tigers couldn’t field and a free ball played out of bounds by Gallegos. The Tigers would come as close as 11-10, but Ignacio’s lead eventually regrew to 22-15 before a Brown missile and subsequent service ace by Trujillo closed the gap to 22-19. Trujillo, however, then netted her next serve and IHS reached set point, 24-19, when Ruybal netted a tip after a poorly-received Sirios serve.
Bradley then netted an attack to end the match’s longest-lived exchange, but the ’Cats went up 1-0 in the match when IHS senior Alyssa Atencio’s tip shot near the sideline was passed to no one.
“We have our moments that we’re really, really good and we have moments where we kind of just cave into our comfort zone and … don’t want the ball, don’t want to make that dig, don’t want to make that play,” said second year DNHS head coach Chance Canty.
“Mentally we kind of just relaxed … on fundamentals. Didn’t value that first contact like we needed to, didn’t move our feet to the ball like we needed to – that first contact’s essential to being in system … and having our offensive weapons available.”
Del Norte bounced back to nearly go wire-to-wire in Set 2, taking a 3-2 lead and never letting IHS get closer than three points before evening the match when Bradley bashed an attempted kill long. But the ’Cats came right back and never let a 4-3 edge in Set 3 degrade before, on IHS’ fourth crack at set point, Bradley attempted a back-row kill which DNHS senior setter Nayelie Velasquez couldn’t control.
“It was a game of momentum, like all volleyball,” Canty said. “We had some really big ups and got momentum on our side, but when we lost that momentum we never got it back. Ignacio capitalized on that, so kudos to them for how well they competed on every single ball.”
Up next, the ’Cats will begin SJBL work at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at Mancos.
“We played them quite a few times during the summer, so I think that we have a pretty good shot because we know how they play,” said Ignacio junior Reggi Gustafson. “Really just focus on our basics and not overcomplicate it.”
