It’s hard to win any match making 20 errors, especially one against Bayfield High School.
The Wolverines beat Ignacio High School 3-0 (25-12, 25-11, 25-14) on Tuesday at BHS in the two local schools’ Pink Digs for the Cure cancer benefit match.
The Wolverines (14-3, 7-0 Intermountain League) wore pink uniforms, and the game was played with a pink ball to raise breast cancer awareness.
It suited Kirstie Hillyer just fine. She collected 15 kills in 19 attempts with zero errors for a .789 hitting percentage.
“She is creating space for herself,” BHS head coach Terene Foutz said. “She’s jumping from 5 feet off net right now, and it’s giving her clearance, line of sight and the ability to attack angles.”
Hillyer also had three blocks and an ace in the straight-sets sweep.
It wasn’t just Hillyer, though.
Katy Funkhouser picked up seven kills, Tessa Powell five and Caitlin Phelps four to keep the Bobcats’ defense guessing.
“It’s helpful for us to move the ball around so we can keep them guessing on the side,” said Funkhouser, daughter of Madonna and Tod Funkhouser.
Suzie Rhodes led BHS with 29 assists, while Maddi Foutz had 17 digs and four aces.
There wasn’t an abundance of opportunities for any of the Wolverines’ attackers because IHS (3-13, 3-10 San Juan Basin League) kept giving away points with serving and hitting errors.
“We lost focus in serve-receive,” IHS head coach Thaddeus Cano said. “Once it snowballed, as a team and as a coach, it’s pretty hard to recover from. With us, it was absolutely more mental.”
IHS led 1-0 at the start of the first game and 5-4 early in the third, but the Bobcats gave up both leads on the next point.
Miel Daiz paced the Bobcats with five kills.
Both teams had to refocus on the Pink Digs’ match after an opening ceremony where event sponsors and cancer survivors were recognized.
“It gives you more of a purpose when you go play,” said Hillyer, daughter of Laura and Rich Hillyer. “It lets you get into it and have more fun when you’re playing for someone.”
Foutz, the former IHS head coach, started the Pink Digs for the Cure benefit eight years ago; it raised $10,000 the first year, and they hope to raise as much as $30,000 this year.
The next and final match of this year’s four-match slate is Montezuma-Cortez at Durango High School on Oct. 22. Foutz was an assistant coach at DHS last year.
The Wolverines have won their last two matches after last week’s loss at Piedra Vista, and they still haven’t lost a game in IML play.
BHS will play its final regular-season home match against Alamosa on Thursday.
“The better we play then we’re able to keep each other going,” Funkhouser said. “Fun games like this where we’re not here just for us but we’re here for other people keeps us going.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
