The weekend couldn’t have gone much better for Bella Bernazzani and the Durango High School volleyball team.
She was named homecoming queen after Friday’s 3-2 win over league-leading Montrose, and the Demons beat Grand Junction Central 3-1 (27-25, 23-25, 25-20, 22-7) on Saturday behind Bernazzani’s 10 kills and four blocks.
“She’s really our firepower. When she’s on, the rest of the team feeds off it,” DHS head coach Colleen Keresey said.
DHS (8-7, 5-2 Southwestern League) won a war in the first set, overcoming a 23-20 deficit to win 27-25.
Bernazzani finished with eight of her 10 kills in the game.
Central (6-11, 2-7 SWL) took the second game 25-23 after three late DHS attack errors and a double hit.
Senior Jessie Brammer made one of those errors and had trouble finishing the ball early. She eventually bounced back to finish with eight kills.
“My coach reminded me of my job as a captain and that I have to work past my errors and support my team,” said Brammer, daughter of Michol and Robert Brammer.
The Demons efficiently took the third game before exploding at the beginning of the fourth: DHS went on a 20-1 run after trailing 1-0 to put a vice grip on the game and the match.
Setter Logan Clark and defensive specialist Mikayla Montoya combined for five aces during the stretch.
“Our coach really emphasizes on our serves. That is our weapon,” said Montoya, daughter of Frank and Stacie Montoya. “Besides our hitting and our offense, our serve is our weapon. We use that to dominate.”
DHS needed it after the Warriors started to move their block around and key on Bernazzani.
“A lot of teams in the league are doing this when they realize I’m in the front row; they camp on me, to say the least,” said Bernazzani, daughter of John and Robin Bernazzani. “They choose out, ‘Which one do you think is going to get the ball?’ I just need to figure out how to work around it.”
Saturday’s win was DHS’ fourth consecutive victory and the seniors’ penultimate match at home (Montezuma-Cortez on Oct. 22).
“I grew up watching volleyball in this gym. Whether it was my sisters playing or other girls playing. This gym, people don’t understand that it’s the best,” Montoya said. “When you play in it, you try your hardest, and you improve. I think that playing in here in my last Saturday home game was bittersweet, but I’m ready to move on.”
DHS still has road matches left, and the Demons will play at Grand Junction on Friday and at SWL second-place Montrose on Saturday with a chance to pull even with the Indians in the league standings.
“We talked about how this weekend will set ourselves up to finish strong in league, but we need to get better, whether it’s for playing Montrose in Grand Junction or for postseason,” Keresey said.
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
Senior Day
Bella Bernazzani
Jessie Brammer
Berkeley Davis
Mikayla Montoya
Gabi Razma
Durango Herald
