For the first time since 2023, the Ignacio High School volleyball team is heading back to the 2A state championships.
The 11th-seeded Bobcats won six out of seven sets against No. 26 Hoehne and No. 14 Rye at Ignacio High School on Friday to win the 2A Region 11 regional.
Ignacio defeated Hoehne, 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-11) and then defeated Rye, 3-1 (25-12, 23-25, 25-19. 25-14). The Bobcats improved to 21-4 overall which ties the 2023 team for the most wins the program has had in the last 15 years. Hoehne finished its season 11-14 overall and Rye finished its season 18-7 overall after it beat Hoehne, 3-0, at the regional before losing to Ignacio.
Against Hoehne, sophomore middle Alleah Neil led the Bobcats with 10 kills and two blocks. Juniors Lainee Bradley and Reggi Gustafson each had six kills against Hoehne.
It wasn’t the best start to the regional for Ignacio against Hoehne. The Bobcats were down 8-1 and then 12-4 in Set 1. Hoehne’s strong hitters hit a few balls that stunned the Ignacio defense, according to Bobcats head coach Jennifer Seibel.
“The emotions of the home crowd and just the hype of everything; the emotion kind of got to us,” Seibel said. “We got down … it was pretty bad and I called the time out. I said, ‘Okay, well, what are we going to do? Are we going to roll over, or what?’ The girls responded immediately right after that time out.”
Ignacio had a mental switch and it paid off on the scoreboard. Bradley and junior setter Kelly Sirios led the comeback as the Bobcats tied the first set at 15. Seibel felt the momentum on the side of Ignacio. Junior Maliyah Martinez started hitting line very well and the Bobcats never looked back with a 25-20 Set 1 win.
Neither of the last two sets were close as Hoehne looked defeated after losing its early big Set 1 lead. Ignacio set the tempo in Set 2 and 3. Seibel thought Hoehne’s big hitters were out of sync and the Farmers had a lot of errors, leading to an easy 25-15 Set 2 win and 25-11 Set 3 win for Ignacio.
Later in the day against Rye, the Bobcats got off to a good start and cruised to a Set 1 victory, 25-12. Ignacio did a great job in Set 1 against Rye’s best player, senior middle hitter Isabella Bond, who led the Thunderbolts with 266 kills heading into regionals, which was eighth in 2A.
But, Bond had her way in the second set. She ran the Rye offense, controlled the tempo and even had a run at the service line, according to Seibel.
“When she hit, it was a kill almost every time when she touched the ball,” Seibel said about Bond. “She was a very smart, controlled hitter and she had a great IQ. She could see the court and my blockers had a hard time squaring up with her from the middle, and she just turned the ball right around them.”
In Set 3, Seibel thought her team took the tempo back. She credited Neil with blocking and moving better. Rye started overpassing and this led to easy kills for Neil. Those kills opened up the Ignacio offense, according to Seibel, and really amped up the team’s energy and the student section was also energized.
Ignacio took two easy set wins to close out the Rye match. Seibel was surprised how much Rye went away from Bond in Set 3 and 4 after its success in Set 2. Seibel was happy with how her team attacked the right side and kept Rye out of its system. She was also happy with how her sophomore defensive specialist, Aubriella Herrera, came in and did a good job defending against the Rye serve.
Next up for the Bobcats is the 2A state championship in Denver. Although the seedings and matchups will come out on Monday, Seibel thinks her team will be one of the lower seeds.
Junior libero Tara Baker, Bradley and Sirios were all on the 2023 team that went to state.
“They've seen it and it's not much different than like a club tournament,” Seibel said about state. “The stage is similar; there's six courts going around about the same time. So the stage is similar to what most of my girls have already seen so it's not going to be a shell shock … Every team is good from here on out, so it'll be a good, fun road.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
