The Durango High School volleyball team scored a dominant 25-8, 25-10, 25-8 win over Grand Junction on Friday to begin its 4A/5A Southwestern League play.
With Mason Rowland sidelined with an injury, players stepped up for Durango and played calm and confident ball to take down the Tigers.
“I told the girls they need to trust one another and they need to trust me,” said DHS head coach Kelley Rifilato. “They stuck together as a team and won as a team. That’s all I can ask.”
Game 1 was close early, but a kill from Anna Folk put DHS up 4-3. Aava Dreger then served an ace, and Leah Wolf and Emma Burns each had a pair of kills to put the Demons up 11-4.
Durango continued to pull away, and Dreger eventually ended the first set with a hard kill. She led DHS with 13 kills.
“Aava hit well and played great defense,” Rifilato said.
Wolf added 12 kills and seven service aces.
One of Wolf’s kills tied the second game at 4-4. Another hard spike from Wolf gave DHS a 6-4 lead, and Durango never trailed again.
Sarah Somrak followed a kill with a block. Wolf served two aces. Eva Stewart dumped a second hit for a kill, blocked a shot and served an ace. On game point, Emma Burns and Hadyn Neiman leaped and blocked a Grand Junction hit for the DHS win.
“The energy Emma gave us was phenomenal,” Rifilato said.
In Game 3, two Dreger kills put the Demons up 4-0. Wolf and Burns added some kills. Then, with DHS leading 12-6, Wolfe took over the serve and helped expand Durango’s lead to 23-6. Wolf served five aces in that stretch while Dreger had a trio of kills.
Stewart dished out many of the team’s kills on the night playing setter. “Eva did fantastic,” Rifilato said. “She believed and even got a dump She did everything we asked of her.”
The coach also said libero Brooklyn Messier played well. “She was so relaxed and made Eva confident because she kept putting the ball on a dime to her,” Rifilato said.
Durango improved to 5-2 overall and 1-0 in the SWL with the win. Grand Junction slipped to 2-6, 0-1.
The game was also the first competition on DHS’ newly renovated gym floor, and it was the first time the team was able to play in the gym since work began.
“I’m just proud of them because this has been a really hard week,” Rifilato said. “It was such a great win. We needed that.“
The Demons will play at home again at 11 a.m. Saturday, hosting league foe Fruita Monument (2-5, 1-0).
