Not finding her offensive swing as frequently as, say, Durango teammates Ally Snow or Lana Razma, Brett Rowland's two best shots Tuesday night may have come from the service line. And, in Game 5 of another classic clash with Bayfield, may have been more demoralizing than the destructive force put forth by her fellow seniors.
Sophomore libero Millie O'Ketter had aced counterpart Tymbree Florian twice early in the tiebreaker, giving the home team an imposing 7-2 start in the race to 15, but BHS, still not long removed from an exciting 25-19 win in Game 4, trimmed that lead to 9-5 before a Sydney Gabbard spike sailed long and put Rowland on serve.
Serving short and towards the Wolverines' bench, Rowland's offering clipped the top of the net and dropped in before BHS senior Kylee McCoy could reach it. Bayfield head coach Danica Frost quickly called timeout as the DemonDome's volume hit its highest level yet.
"In that fifth, they were definitely targeting me; I'm, like, the huge, lengthy girl in the back row," McCoy quipped afterwards. "But, you know, you can't get to every pass."
After the pause in play, Rowland incredibly recreated her previous serve. And though McCoy again nearly reached the ball with a slide on her knees, all she could do was toss it back with a you've-got-to-be-kidding-me expression showing on her face.
And that, for all practical purposes, could have been that, and against any other opponent, Durango could have coasted to victory. But not against Bayfield, a fact spiked home by, fittingly, McCoy on the very next point.
"For two years in a row we've lost, like, 15 to 13 in that fifth game, and it's just been building up and building up," Razma said. "All our practices and everything, it's just for this one moment."
"They really had the heart tonight," McCoy said of the Demons. "I think that both teams are pretty equal in skill, but it was just a matter of who wanted it more."
McCoy then served long, and a BHS net violation put DHS on match point, 14-6. Still, the home team wasn't safe; Bayfield scored with a block on Razma, then seniors Ashley Mottin and Gabbard combined for another denial, and Mottin then coldly stoned Snow solo.
Unfortunately, being in such a defensive groove led to a brief lapse in concentration offensively. After withstanding yet another Durango attack, the Wolverines' pass to the front row went away from setter Courtney Bayles and fell untouched to the floor-an anticlimactic end to a 28-30, 25-18, 15-25, 25-19, 9-15 defeat.
"The whole season, we've been looking forward to playing Bayfield. nd we've been putting a lot of work in the gym, so it really paid off tonight," Snow said. "We all wanted it, got what we wanted and it was awesome."
"At the end of the day, like, it really hurts to lose, but we play this sport for fun and it's always fun playing Durango," said McCoy. "They're my favorite competitor, personally."
Even in the Bayfield-dominated Game 2, when the visitors took a 10-9 lead and never looked back en route to evening the match at one game apiece, that fact never became any clearer to Durango Coach Colleen Vogt than when she called her fastest timeout in the battle after a McCoy mash cut her team's recently regained Game 1 lead to 20-19.
"We took them to five last time (on Sept. 26) and all of us were like, 'We just need to stand here, take a deep breath. We'll be fine as long as we keep it fast," McCoy explained. "That was our thing tonight, keeping it fast."
"Where we were really successful was when we were keeping it fast and putting some balls down."
The Demons effectively traded their way up to game point, 24-22, but Bayfield (12-7, 8-2 3A Intermountain) fought back and scored via a roofing-the-setter violation against DHS, a McCoy ace and a Gabbard kill. Mutual errors then left the score level at 26 before another Gabbard kill gave the guests another chance.
Rowland, however, scored with a tip, but Durango couldn't benefit from a subsequent Mottin lift/throw as BHS sophomore Mavis Edwards smacked a kill to re-tie at 28-all.
Steady all match in DHS' middle, junior Taylor Wolf then downed a kill and the Demons escaped when McCoy's reply didn't make it through the net.
"That was a heck of a way to start off," said Florian. "Both teams played with so much heart, and Durango brought their game. Skill-wise we're really equal, and I think that's what made it so hard, so much fun to play."
"So much adrenaline, it kind of set the tone, showed that we were both there to fight."
"We really played on pure adrenaline," Razma agreed. "I couldn't have asked for better to end the night."
McCoy finished with 13 kills, while Gabbard and Mottin each totaled eight. Sophomore middle Tess Phelps and Edwards each registered five as Bayles logged 36 assists.
Defensively, the Wolverines did the job about as well as it could be done in such a battle. Edwards came up with 20 digs and Florian 16, and Gabbard (15), Bayles (11) and McCoy (11) joined them in double figures. Mottin was close with another nine, but posted team-bests of three solo and six total blocks.
McCoy, Phelps and Gabbard each totaled three rejections and Bayles four.
Bayfield will head east to Monument this weekend for this Saturday's Palmer Ridge Invitational and could face 4A Colorado Springs Discovery Canyon first thing in the morning.
"From here, we really need to focus on finishing games; we need to push through the hard stuff," said McCoy. "We're definitely going to kick it up this weekend to go play those bigger teams."
