The Bayfield High School and Ignacio High School volleyball teams know their state playoff paths after the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) revealed the class brackets on Sunday.
Bayfield received the No. 6 seed in the 3A state playoff bracket and will face No. 11 Aspen on Thursday at 11 a.m. inside the Denver Coliseum.
“I'm pleased with the draw,” Bayfield head coach Terene Foutz said. “Usually, we're the ones at 11 or 12. The last several seasons, we've been on the lower end of the bracket. So we'll see how it goes. I've watched a little bit of their matches, and it's going to be a good matchup. It'll come down to defense and first-contact volleyball on that one.”
The No. 6-seeded Wolverines breezed through the 3A Region 6 regional on Saturday at home, sweeping No. 31 St. Mary’s Academy and No. 19 Peak-to-Peak Academy to capture their second consecutive regional title. Bayfield is 18-7 overall and finished 6-2 in the 3A Intermountain League. Five of Bayfield’s seven losses have come to 4A or 5A schools. Its only two losses in 3A have come to Alamosa, the top seed in 3A.
Aspen won the Region 11 regional by sweeping No. 26 KIPP Denver Collegiate and then beating No. 14 The Vangiard School, 3-2. Aspen started its season 12-1, and has won five consecutive matches. The Skiers are 20-5 overall and finished 8-1 in the 3A Western Slope League.
The Skiers have four players with over 100 kills, with junior middle hitter Andrea Lee (No. 4) leading the way with 189 kills, followed by junior Mary Morse’s 164 kills.
“They move the ball around a lot,” Foutz said about Aspen. “They attack a lot from the right side, which is their strength. So they're a fast, transitional 6-2 offense (six attackers, two setters), and they have a couple of middles that know where the blocks are. They're strong in the middle, and they have good ball handling.”
Foutz has had her team focused on team blocking, communication, mobility and protecting the corners heading into the Aspen matchup.
After leaving state winless last year, Foutz said her group is more focused on the moment, not the entire event, this year. They’ll be used to the big stage that the Denver Coliseum provides.
The winner of the Bayfield vs. Aspen match will face No. 3 Eaton on Thursday at 5 p.m. The Reds are 21-4 overall and finished the regular season 12-0 in the 4A/3A/2A Patriot League.
Ignacio received the No. 10 seed in the 2A state championship bracket and will face No. 7 Sedgwick County on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in Denver Coliseum. The Cougars are the defending 2A state champions.
“I am excited about where we are in the bracket,” Ignacio head coach Jennifer Seibel said. “We saw Sedgwick County earlier this season at the Denver Christian tournament. They're a quality team; they're very well coached. We've played them the last three years that I've been coaching, and so they're real familiar with the type of defense that they run and their type of offense that they have and their players.”
Seeded 11th in the regionals, the Bobcats won the Region 11 regional on Friday at home by sweeping No. 26 Hoehne and beating No. 14 Rye, 3-1. Ignacio enters the state playoffs 21-4 overall, and it finished the regular season 11-1 in the 2A/1A San Juan Basin League. The Bobcats have won 11 of their last 12 matches, with the only loss coming to Dolores, seeded third in 2A.
“To get to this point, that means a lot to me, especially because we only have two seniors,” Ignacio sophomore Aubriella Herrera said after the regionals. “Our team’s pretty young, so that just shows how hard-working we are.”
In regionals, No. 8 Sedgwick County swept No. 29 Thomas MacLaren School and Ascent Classical Academy. The Cougars are 19-6 overall and finished the regular season 6-2 in the 2A/1A Lower Platte League. Sedgwick County has won seven of its last eight matches, with the lone loss coming to No. 1 seed Simla on Nov. 1.
Sedgwick County senior Lainee Nein leads the Cougars with 362 kills; no other player has more than 150. Nein’s 362 kills are the third most in 2A.
One of Ignacio’s four losses came to Sedgwick County, 3-1, on Sept. 6. Unsurprisingly, Nein led the way with 24 kills. Ignacio sophomore Alleah Neil led the way with nine kills.
“Our communication and our defense have improved a lot,” Seibel said. “We are a lot more well-rounded since we played them, and our blocking has gotten a lot better. We were super young at blocking when we first played them, and my two girls have grown a lot since then. Putting that strong, solid block up against Lainee (Nein), she's an outside and she's their player … will make it a lot more interesting now.”
The winner of the Ignacio vs. Sedgwick County match will face No. 2 Denver Christian on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. The Thunder are 21-4 overall and finished 7-3 in the 3A/2A Metro League.
Seibel thinks the key for her team moving forward will be focusing on the things they already do well, because refining those skills will be a confidence booster in the state playoffs.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
