Volleyball is a sport where sometimes the score doesn’t tell the whole story. Close sets and bad breaks can be forgotten after the match is finished.
The Durango volleyball team did lose to Montrose 3-1 on Friday night. But it could’ve flipped the other way for the Demons. Durango led late in three of the four sets but couldn’t finish.
Montrose took the first set 26-24 and the second set 25-19. Durango battled back to win the third set 25-22 and Montrose finished off the Demons 26-24 in the fourth set.
Durango fell to 5-5 overall and 1-3 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League. After starting the season 3-0, the Demons have lost five out of their last seven games.
Montrose improved to 9-3 overall and 4-1 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League.
“We played well, we struggled with some errors,” Durango head coach Kelley Rifilato said. “But overall, we're playing the best volleyball we've played all year. All I've asked is for these kids to continue to get better and they have every week.”
Durango senior Avery Rike led the Demons with 12 kills. Freshman Devyn Edwards and junior Aysia Mathews each had eight kills. Senior Eva Stewart had two aces and 28 assists.
The teams battled back and forth in the first set as Montrose had a few serving errors which helped Durango stay in the set. Montrose seemed to have an advantage at the net and the Red Hawks took a 13-12 lead.
Rike had a powerful spike for the kill on the left side, Montrose had another serving error and Edwards showed her athleticism at the net with a nice block to tie the game at 17.
Montrose kept shooting itself in the foot with hitting errors. This gave Durango a 19-17 lead. A great rally ensued with a side out for Montrose to cut the Demons lead to 19-18. Montrose responded for a 21-20 lead which led to a Rifilato timeout.
Once again Montrose had a serving error which tied the set at 22. A Red Hawks outside hitter smashed it out of bounds for a 24-23 Demons lead. A side out for Montrose gave the Red Hawks a 25-24 lead. After so many serving errors, Montrose ended the set with an ace for a 26-24 win.
“In the first set, we were still a little bit quiet,” Rifilato said. “I had to talk to a couple of girls about how they have to bring the energy. They bring it at practice. They can't be quiet in the game. Teams are always either going to pick on the weak one or they're going to pick on the strong one. That's a sign of respect if they're picking on the strong one. So you can't let that change your disposition.”
Hitting errors plagued the Demons and Montrose capitalized to lead 15-5 in the second set. The Demons made a bit of a comeback with more energy, better blocking around the net and two aces to make it 23-19. But it was too little too late as the Red Hawks finished the second set with an ace for a 25-19 win.
“I was super proud of them because we could have lost by 10-12, points and we continued to battle,” Rifilato said. “Montrose ended up having to call their two timeouts … the momentum switch was really at about 12 points. All of a sudden we realized we could do a lot of different things offensively. That's where we gained our momentum. The rest of the game it carried on.”
Durango started out strong in the third set with a 9-3 lead with two aces and a couple of nice blocks from the Demons. Montrose wasn’t defending very well during that stretch.
A fantastic rally full of push shots, spikes, blocks and digs culminated in a spike at the net by Edwards for a 12-6 lead. She seemed to have cracked the code by forcing side outs by smashing it into the Montrose blockers at times.
Montrose showed its skill with some nicely placed, powerful shots to bring the Red Hawks back to a 14-11 deficit. Stewart had an ace and Mathews had a powerful kill to get the lead back up to 18-11 before a Red Hawks timeout.
Two tip shots over the Demons blockers cut the Durango lead to 20-15. Montrose cut into that even more with some powerful kills at the net to make it 21-18. The Red Hawks continued to pressure the Demons but Stewart had a great block to seal the set victory 25-22.
The Demons started the fourth set off strong. A powerful Rike kill after a phenomenal save at the net gave Durango a 4-1 lead. Both teams struggled with serving errors as Durango led 7-5.
Durango took a 15-11 lead after a powerful Rike kill which forced a Red Hawks timeout. The Demons continued their excellent play with two Mathews kills on the right side for an 18-11 lead.
Montrose battled back and made it 18-15 after a ball smashed off a Red Hawk head for the score.
Mathews really stepped up with her blocking and scoring in the fourth set. She hit with such velocity with her left hand which made it tough to stop.
Unfortunately, Mathews got hurt after a Demon kill and hobbled off with a lower-body injury. Reserve hitter Jaelyn Alston came in to replace her.
The Mathews injury seemed to take the momentum away from the Demons and made them look a bit disorganized. A hitting error by Durango tied the game at 22. But Durango rallied for a 24-22 lead and then with two side outs it was 24-24.
Montrose finished with a 26-24 win after a Rike hitting error.
“Even when she went down, I know we had the lead, but that's always hard to try to knock that out of your brain, not think about that and move forward,” Rifilato said. “A couple of errors at the end was the difference in the whole game.”
Durango plays today at home at 11 a.m. against Grand Junction.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
