Winning in a sweep isn’t all that common for the Durango High School volleyball team, but that’s exactly what the Demons did Thursday night when they took care of Montezuma-Cortez 25-18, 25-16 and 25-21 at DHS.
“It’s been a while since we’ve won in three (sets). We didn’t win a lot in three last year,” said Durango head coach Colleen Vogt, whose team won one match in three sets during the 2016 season. “It’s kind of fun to come out and take care of business. But I also like that we had to work for it a little bit. We had to play well and pass well. It wasn’t easy, and Cortez definitely came to play.”
In each of the three sets, the Panthers (2-3) held their own with the Demons (2-0). But as the sets wore on Durango pulled away, as it took advantage of some Cortez mistakes to steal the momentum and rain hard kills down on the Panthers.
“There’s always been that rivalry and it’s always been like that,” Durango senior Lana Razma said of playing Cortez. “Even when they’re not as strong as a team we’ve always given them points when we shouldn’t have. Colleen told us to take care of business. Get in, work hard, do your job, take care of business and get out.”
In the first set, Durango held a slight 10-8 lead before taking control when Razma blew the set open with strong serving that helped the Demons to a 20-10 advantage.
The second set followed a similar pattern as the first. Cortez matched Durango and tied the set at 10-10. But that’s when the Panthers started making mistakes that allowed the Demons to separate and take the set.
“There were a couple in the first and second sets where it was like free reign on hitting,” Cortez head coach David Robinson said. “It kills you if you just let a swinger swing.”
The third set was the closest fought of the night. The two teams traded points for the majority of the set with neither side building a lead of more than a few points. But, late in the set, the Demons executed a possession to perfection with Brianna Brown quick-setting Razma, who blasted a kill past the Panthers to spark the Demons to win the final few points of the set to secure the sweep.
“That big kill Lana had, we’ve been working on that all week in practice,” Vogt said.
Brown spread the ball around to multiple hitters and finished the night with 26 assists.
Four Demons recorded seven or more kills in the win, led by Brett Rowland’s 12 kills.
Durango will have a quick turnaround and will host Pagosa Springs (4-2) at 11 a.m. Saturday.
The Panthers will get a week to recover from the loss before they will host Monte Vista (0-2) on Sept. 14.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
