Definitely not wanting her team to get ahead of itself before beginning its 2022 volleyball season in earnest, Durango head coach Kelley Rifilato was pleased that the Demons were focused on Tuesday night’s task.
“Sarah Somrak was on the bus saying how she only looks at the calendar day for when we play next; she doesn’t look at anything ahead of it,” Rifilato recalled, mentioning her 6-foot junior middle’s mindset. “And I laughed; I said, ‘That’s me, too!’”
Zeroing in solely on an Aug. 30 trip to county rival Bayfield, however, took a little doing; DHS hadn’t seen action since sweeping 5A Farmington on the road a week earlier.
“It was long, for sure,” senior outside hitter Leah Wolf said of the wait. “But it just gave us more time to practice and get our skills down. We had no seniors last year, so we’re really just building off of last season. So it’s been good.”
The Lady Wolverines, meanwhile, had gotten underway driving to three distant destinations in five days before finally having Sunday and Monday to regroup before Durango’s arrival.
“We’re excited-nervous,” senior middle K’Lee Stuffelbeam-Jolly had said after BHS’ Aug. 27 loss at 4A Palisade. “A ‘good’ nervous because they’re looking good this year, but I think we are too.”
Fired up for a tournament this weekend in Glenwood Springs, the Demons just looked a little better Tuesday to book a 25-12, 25-22 and 25-16 nonleague sweep on “Blackout Night” inside BHS Gymnasium.
“Durango’s just super-solid, and I’m actually really happy for them; I think they’re due,” said Lady Wolverine head coach Terene Foutz, who succeeded Rifilato at BHS in 2013. “It’s been coming for a while now, for Durango; they’re looking great.”
“Trying to sustain consistency has been tough the last couple years, partly because of age, but then partly because of inexperience,” Rifilato said. “And finally I feel like they almost can slow down the plays; we’re making good decisions on defense, which then lead to good decisions on offense.”
Red-hot out of the gate, back-to-back Wolf service gems pressed Foutz into using her second of two Game 1 timeouts with Durango leading 16-5. Senior Kori Jenkins responded with consecutive scores from the service line, closing the gap to 16-8 and managing to buoy Bayfield briefly before DHS (2-0, 0-0 4A/5A Southwestern) sailed away. Durango senior Naomi Rowe aced BHS senior libero Myrah Abdallah-Boehm on game point.
The Wolverines (1-3, 0-0 3A Intermountain) recomposed in Game 2 and took a 5-4 lead after a scoring tandem block by senior Kenasea Byrd and sophomore Christiana Sutherlin, plus an Abdallah-Boehm ace. Durango, however, would tie at 6-6 via junior libero Brooklyn Messier’s ace, and again at 9-all after Stuffelbeam-Jolly jolted long an attack.
Bayfield remained aggressive and led 16-15 before Demon sophomore Eva Stewart (11 assists, 6 digs, 5 kills) downed a line kill, helping DHS gain a 19-17 upper hand. Foutz called time, reminding her crew to do the little things but also giving the players a chance to recharge.
But Durango extended its lead to three points and never let BHS get closer than two down the stretch. Wolf eventually gave the Demons a 2-0 match lead by tipping senior Mason Rowland’s set into empty floor just in front of Meili Lovejoy.
“I really liked how they calmed down after the first set,” Foutz said. “We started to create a system of play, kept working; they stayed the course and I thought our passing got better as the night went on.”
Mistakes unfortunately piled up quickly in Game 3 for Bayfield.
Junior Allia Connell began the stanza hitting long. Byrd then tipped a ball off the antenna. A BHS net violation followed by an authoritative Wolf/Somrak block forced Foutz to pause play with DHS leading 6-0. Coming out of the timeout, Rowland (17 assists, 10 digs, 6 kills) served long, but the Demons weren’t in danger until Bayfield senior Kody Rey ripped a vicious cross-court kill which brought the Wolverines back to 14-12.
Rifilato decided to interrupt her opponent’s rhythm with a timeout. Not long after, consecutive BHS attacks out of bounds rebuilt DHS’ lead to 18-12, which soon swelled to 23-13. A Lovejoy ace helped Bayfield put together a three-point burst, but Wolf brought up match point spiking down a BHS overpass, then secured victory with another overpass smash after Messier (16 digs) initially served the ball over the strings.
“We definitely had a couple up-and-downs, but there’s definitely a whole other level we could get to,” said Wolf (13 kills, 9 digs, 5 blocks). “But this was pretty good … pretty standard for us.”
Rifilato noted versatile front-row senior Emma Burns’ return (Rowe would often sub in to serve for Burns) as an X-Factor.
“Yesterday she came to half the practice,” Rifilato said, “and … I wasn’t sure tonight if she was ready to go. She said she was, and when watching her in the warmup I changed my lineup – coach’s prerogative, right? But Emma’s athleticism is only going to flourish; since Farmington she hadn’t been practicing because of a foot issue, so it was fun to see her back in there.”
Burns put down a half-dozen kills. Somrak finished with five kills and five blocks. Rowe tallied eight digs.
Durango was the fourth-highest ‘Others Receiving Votes’ team in the week-starting CHSAANow.com Class 4A poll. Bayfield was bumped out of the top-10 and into the top ‘ORV’ spot in 3A.
DHS will next compete in the Glenwood Springs Demon Invitational this weekend, facing 4A Mullen (Denver) at 4 p.m. Friday and then 3A Rifle at 6 p.m. On Saturday, Durango will duel 3A Basalt at 9 a.m., then 4A Glenwood Springs at 11.
“Back-to-back games Friday night, back-to-back games Saturday morning – it’ll be a challenge,” Rifilato said. “But they’re mature, really take it all one game at a time.”
“I do have depth, though our team isn’t gigantic,” she continued, “and we can only continue to get better. That’s what I keep saying: We just need to be better. It’s a group effort all the time, and we can only continue to blossom.”
“To go to state, that’s her goal,” joked Wolf. “But mostly just getting us playing at a higher level, staying strong.”
Bayfield will next see action Tuesday when it hosts Montezuma-Cortez to begin IML play.
“We want to play the Durangos,” Foutz said. “Last year we had 13 of our 23 (regular-season) matches against 4A and 5A schools, so I’m not going to shy away from that even in a year where we have to be on the learning curve.”
“I thought the unforced errors really got us tonight. I like the direction that we’re going, but we have a lot of work to do – especially when it comes to consistency and avoiding unforced errors.”
“I mean, we have to go up to the Lewis-Palmer tournament and that’s going to be no joke,” she added. “We’re going to have to stay the course on our learning … and I’m good with the journey. This was a great match experience for us.”
Ignacio began 2A/1A San Juan Basin League play on Tuesday at Mancos and fell just short of its first victory of the young season.
Managing to defend their ‘nest,’ the Lady Jays rallied to pull out a 25-15, 22-25, 20-25, 26-24, 15-10 win and improve to 4-2 overall, 1-0 SJBL.
Senior Harmony Reynolds led the Volleycats (0-3, 0-1) with eight kills while junior Solymar Cosio and sophomore Marissa Olguin each put down five. Senior Trinity Strohl and sophomore Ollyvia Howe were each credited with four as senior setter Laci Brunson totaled 24 assists.
Brunson also came up with nine digs – as did Olguin – while Strohl recorded 10 and Reynolds 16.
Up next, Ignacio will travel north to Kremmling for the Sept. 2-3 West Grand Invitational. As of press time the tournament’s schedule shows the ’Cats first facing 2A South Park (Fairplay) at 3 p.m. Friday, followed by 2A Cedaredge at 4:30. On Day 2 Ignacio will battle Black Hawk-based 2A Gilpin County at 10:30 a.m., then play an opponent to be determined at 1:30.
Ignacio was also scheduled to play its home opener versus 1A Norwood (0-4, 0-0 SJBL) on Thursday as this paper was going to press.
