A “let’s go” scream from the locker room, a slap of Tricia Melfy’s black leather binder followed by her signature “we will” mantra and three blocks by freshman outside hitter Tye Wedhorn changed the direction of the Fort Lewis College volleyball season and possibly the program on Thursday night at Whalen Gymnasium.
Adams State defeated the Skyhawks 3-1 with scores of 25-17, 25-19, 15-25 and 25-23, but despite the loss on senior night, which ended a six-game win streak at home, the Skyhawks’ third-set win locked up their first RMAC Tournament berth since 2013.
FLC (9-13, 9-9 RMAC) went down two sets to the Grizzlies and headed into the locker room knowing the stakes. If Fort Lewis lost the third set, Adams State would have snatched the final spot away from the Skyhawks.
That’s when first-year head coach Tricia Melfy uttered her signature catch phrase: “We will.”
“My whole thing between sets two and three was, ‘we will,’” Melfy said. “It’s in between your ears and your head; we might be tired physically, but we’re going to play with heart. We’re going to come back and we will win this set. I just tried my best to pump them up, play with confidence and get them to believe that let’s just go get one. They did know the scenario when we went into that locker room, but I didn’t want them to know. I went out and everybody knew that we had to win one set and were well aware of what they had to do. ... I think they were playing not to lose early on, and then they came out in the set three playing to win, and there’s a big difference there.”
The Skyhawks did just that. Sophomore setter Bella Valdez yelled, “let’s go” from the Skyhawk locker room that echoed throughout Whalen Gymnasium just before the team took the floor. It ignited the set win.
Freshman outside hitter Tye Wedhorn blocked Grizzlies’ outside hitter Atira Jells to give the Skyhawks their first lead of the entire match at 2-1 and it set the tone for the remainder of the set. Fort Lewis went on a 12-6 run, which was capped off by another Wedhorn block and made it 14-8.
But Wedhorn was not finished in that set, as she registered her third block to give the Skyhawks a commanding 10-point lead at 19-9, the largest lead of the set. It prompted Melfy to smile and slap her black leather business binder in approval followed by another “we will” phrase that boomed across Whalen. FLC would go on to win 25-15.
“We were talking in that locker room and we were saying, ‘it’s do or die,’” said senior setter Kendra Swackenberg. “We either figure it out as a team, or we’re done. It got people thinking and got them going. I thought Tye was fantastic in that set and was everywhere where we needed her to be at the net. And not just Tye, but all of the girls who had struggled to get to this point, we realized that it’s time and we played as hard as we could for the entire set and the rest of the match.”
While the Grizzlies took the fourth and final set 25-23 in which the set was tied twice, the third-set loss ultimately kept them out of the postseason.
The Grizzlies (12-14, 9-9 RMAC) were led by junior middle hitter Grecia Diaz Martinez, who finished with 13 kills, while sophomore middle hitter Shannon Mulkey was just behind with 12. Redshirt junior setter Rachel Ringler recorded 52 assists in the win, while sophomore defensive specialist Mackenzie Swanson had 20 digs.
Wedhorn finished the match with six blocks and 11 kills, which was a team-high. Swackenberg dished out 35 assists, while senior outside hitter Haley Christansen finished with 16 digs.
Meanwhile for the Skyhawks, they will take on the No. 1 seed in the upcoming RMAC Tournament on the road next Tuesday.
Despite playing the No. 1 seed, Swackenberg wants the conference to know that the Skyhawks are back.
“We all have ‘we will’ written on our shoes somewhere, and that’s the big motto for us at the moment,” Swackenberg said. “Going into matches, going into sets, going into every point with the belief that we will; we will win this point, this set and the match. It’s ‘we will’ all the way and now that we’re in the RMACs, I think like I said, there can be some upsets. Everybody is expecting us to go up to Denver and lose, but, we will, we’re going to find a way to win.”
bploen@durangoherald.com
