Montezuma-Cortez High School volleyball defeated Ignacio 3-1 on Tuesday night.
Before the game was finalized, Ignacio libero Tarah Baker, with her right knee folded and her left fully extended seated, highlight-caliber dig of a ball blasted by Montezuma-Cortez’s Tessa Jackson showed that the Volleycats were finally getting their defensive timing up to speed.
The only problem was, while the ’Cats were hoping to push their season opener into a tiebreaking fifth set, Jackson was showing zero signs of slowing down, due in large part to senior setter Kescoleigh Boeckman’s near-perfect crosscourt passing. After M-CHS’ early 10-4 lead in the fourth set crumbled, and hosting IHS built up a 17-13 lead, there was little question to whom the Panthers would turn after IHS briefly regained a 19-17 advantage.
First, the junior hammered a kill through the block of Ignacio six-footer Alleah Neil, then ripped another off an Ignacio block near the antenna to retie the score at 19-all. M-CHS then gained the upper hand at 20-19, and after IHS head coach Jennifer Seibel used her first timeout in the set, went up 21-19 when IHS junior Maliyah Martinez sent an attempted crosscourt spike wide. Boeckman then teed up another Jackson smash, and Neil, a sophomore, then lost a joust at the net to Jackson.
Seibel quickly burned her second timeout, but Jackson promptly brought up match point for M-CHS with a kill off Volleycat setter Kelly Sirios’ block and the visitors then secured victory via a scoring block by junior Hayden Matthias, who almost jumped higher in starting the Panthers’ celebration of their second away triumph in as many outings beginning the 2025 season.
“It’s kind of early to say, being only our second match of the season, but I think they learned the dynamic of being down – what that looks like and what that next set has to look like … all of a sudden now having a close game,” M-CHS head coach Danielle Waltman said, following the 25-15, 25-12, 18-25, 25-19 outcome.
Able to pile up a 10-6 lead early in Set 1, Montezuma-Cortez (2-0 overall), overcame an Ignacio charge giving the ’Cats a 13-10 edge. After tying the score at 13-all, M-CHS gained a one-point edge via a nearside ace serve by senior Sarah Sparks and then outscored IHS 11-2 the rest of the way. Once Jackson brought up set point, 24-15, by successfully jousting Sirios, Boeckman secured the set with a serve Martinez couldn’t cleanly receive, and Sirios couldn’t save it out of the strings.
Martinez began Set 2 with a kill and the Panthers soon pressed Seibel into using a timeout after growing their lead to 9-2 via an ace by senior libero Keeley Clarke, a Jackson block of Martinez, and a Clarke ace of Baker.
“Sarah’s a captain for a reason, Keeley was close to being another one,” Waltman said. “Unfortunately we can only have two; if I could have seven I’d have seven – but they know what they need to do. Sarah’s always got a great serve and Keeley’s incredibly smart with hers.”
Ignacio (0-1 overall) clawed back to as close as 15-7 via a kill by junior Lainee Bradley and 16-8 via a M-CHS net violation before Sparks then held serve until 20-8.
Sirios managed a clever no-look, blindside set dump clipping M-CHS’ lead down to 20-10, but Jackson countered by slam-dunking an errant IHS pass and not long after, brought up set point, 24-12, with a kill. Boeckman then willed an ace through the top of the net, putting the Panthers up 2-0 in the match.
Seibel, however, switched up her rotation starting Set 3, and after Baker tossed up the initial serve, and after the ’Cats weathered an early Jackson storm putting M-CHS up 8-4, Ignacio went on a 9-0 tear featuring a Sirios serve sequence including two no-chance aces of.
Back-to-back Jackson bombs brought Montezuma-Cortez back to 19-15 and another made the score 20-16, but Ignacio reached set point first via a well-placed roll shot by junior transfer Reggi Gustafson, and extended the match into a fourth set via a confident Sirios ace.
IHS saw action Thursday afternoon versus Del Norte (2-0 overall). Results weren’t available at publication time. The Bobcats begin SJBL work on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. against 2A Mancos.
Montezuma-Cortez, meanwhile, will play 2A Dolores at home on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
