For their state championship dreams to become reality, the Wolverines will have to unseat the top seed.
The Bayfield High School volleyball team, seeded eighth, will join No. 1 Eaton and No. 12 Lamar in Pool 1 at the CHSAA Class 3A State Volleyball Championships on Friday and Saturday at the Denver Coliseum in Denver.
Bayfield will kick off its fifth consecutive appearance at state at 8 a.m. Friday against Lamar before meeting Eaton, the 2011 state champion, in the second scheduled match on Saturday’s docket.
The semifinals and finals also will take place Saturday, with the winners of Pool 1 and Pool 4 meeting in one semifinal and the winners of Pool 2 and Pool 3 in the other.
The Wolverines (20-5) advanced to state by winning the Class 3A Region 8 tournament at BHS last weekend over Colorado Academy and Frontier Academy. Kirstie Hillyer is eighth in the state in kills per set, averaging 3.8 per frame, and Suzie Rhodes averages 7.3 assists per set, also good for eighth in the state.
Eaton is on quite the roll of late. The Reds are 23-1 overall, and they haven’t lost since a setback to unbeaten and third-seeded Manitou Springs at the Bishop Machebeuf Tournament on Sept. 7.
Eaton has won 18 consecutive matches and has dropped just a single set in its last six contests, and junior Kortney Lockey leads all of Class 3A in kills per set at 4.7.
Lamar enters state at 22-3 and has won 12 of its last 13 matches, with only a loss to Manitou Springs as the outlier. The Savages boast a well-rounded attack, with five players with more than 100 kills, led by Courtney Clark’s 157.
Play will begin at 8 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
