DENVER - Jessie Roukema sat in a black metal and green-padded foldout chair in a tunnel under the Denver Coliseum with her head buried in her Bayfield High School volleyball jersey.
She was one of the last to change into street clothes after the Wolverines lost 3-1 (25-16, 22-25, 25-14, 25-21) to No. 6 Manitou Springs on Friday in pool play at the CHSAA Class 3A Girls Volleyball State Championships.
Friday’s match may well be the last time she wears the BHS volleyball jersey.
Manitou Springs can clinch a spot in the semifinals with a victory over No. 10 Pagosa Springs on Saturday, but a Pirates’ win – the Wolverines have their fingers crossed – would complicate matters.
BHS (23-3) doesn’t consider that likely, though, and the team treated their postmatch meeting on the Coliseum court as the end of their season.
“It’s definitely really sad. This has been one of the best teams of my life, and we’ve come so far together,” BHS senior Kirstie Hillyer said. “It’s crazy to think about (the season being over).”
The Wolverines started the day off with a bang, sweeping conference rival 10-seed Pagosa Springs 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 25-8), just as these seniors have done the last four years. (The BHS seniors finished their high school career 32-0 in the Intermountain League.)
“We wanted to come out strong. We wanted to come out strong, and this gave ourselves a big step,” BHS sophomore libero Maddi Foutz said after the first match of the day.
No. 3 BHS (23-3) ruled the opening match from the service line.
The Wolverines fired nine aces, led by four from senior Caitlyn Phelps.
“Serving is sacred for us. We really count on it to slow some teams down whenever we can,” BHS head coach Terene Foutz said. “We’ve worked really hard on location since Day 1. The kids have put a lot of work into serving. I think it’s just part of Bayfield.”
Manitou Springs proved a different challenge altogether, though.
The Mustangs held serve for long point-runs in all four sets to distance themselves from BHS.
“We weren’t on top of our attacking as we normally are,” coach Foutz said. “The kids that normally lead us were struggling a little bit. We were not at point-for-point (Friday night). We had some great point runs, then it would go away.”
BHS lost the first set before battling back in the second to tie the match at one apiece. Even in that second-set victory, though, Manitou Springs ripped off a 7-0 run to close a 23-14 gap to 23-21.
“They knew in the second set we didn’t come out and play like we can. We missed some serves that took us out of momentum,” Manitou Springs head coach Carol Benedict said. “We made too many unforced errors in that second set.”
The Mustangs corrected them in the third set, cruising to a 25-14 win.
The fourth set rarely varied more than two points, and a service error ended the match for BHS with a 25-21 loss.
“They knew where to put the ball on our side,” Hillyer said. “They knew how to finish it.”
BHS will graduate a group of five seniors that went to four consecutive state tournaments and never lost a conference match.
Terene Foutz made time to talk to all five after the team ended its meeting.
“The journey they’ve taken, even since before high school, is mind-blowing. It’s incredible to me how far they’ve come. No one can take away their accomplishments. They left it all out on the court,” coach Foutz said. “They can walk away from Bayfield and say, ‘We’ve played some of the best Bayfield volleyball on record, and they have done that.
“They’re so competitive that they’re still competing in their minds after the moment’s over. They need to decompress a little bit.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
