When high-profile Ridgway volleyball middle Hunter Gentry became a friendly-fire casualty-popped in the back of her melon by teammate Emma Copp's service bullet-the opposing Ignacio Volleycats certainly could have hoped her loss would affect Ridgway the same way as had their own recent subtraction.
"We were like, 'Oh my gosh, she just got hit in the head!'" said IHS senior Chrystianne Valdez. "We've concussed our own team before, so we know how that is! Yeah, that's happened.a couple of times in the past."
"We made sure to stay calm," RHS' Ara Norwood said. "That was our key-not let our energy go down."
And unfortunately for Ignacio, the Demons stayed energized. Able to effectively reinforce their weakened front, complementing unsilenced guns Kaitlyn Rutherford and Saren Robinson, the enemy exited the conflict avengers of an earlier defeat which in turn upped the stakes of the Oct. 10 engagement inside IHS Gymnasium.
"They definitely came in focused, just like we did. You know, this was a big game for both of us.to determine the league champions, and it did today," said Valdez (23 digs), aware the Demons had taken a 5-3 lead in games won during the 2A-level teams' head-to-head split of their season series.
Ignacio had a draining five-game (25-27, 25-20, 20-25, 25-22, 10-15) 48 hours earlier to visiting 3A La Jara Centauri.
On Saturday, the Bobcats were the unquestioned aggressors early on in Game 1 with RHS, sprinting out to a 6-1 lead behind the serving of junior Alex Forsythe. She was filling in again in concussion victim Shoshone Thompson's setter role. The hitting of seniors Miel Diaz (5 kills, 12 digs) and Ellie Seibel (4k, 5d) also led the Bobcats into the lead.
Not until Rutherford, slow out of the gate, fired consecutive aces to tie at 7-7 did Ridgway show they were at last ready to rumble. The Demons-after five more scoreboard ties-took the lead for good at 18-17 and bedded the game with a Robinson ace.
Game 2 was the one IHS (9-4, 6-1 2A/1A San Juan Basin League) would have wanted back when all was said and done; after building up a solid 12-5 pad again behind Forsythe's initial serving and late kills by junior Sheigh Pollock and sophomore Avionne Gomez, the 'Cats incredibly suffered quite the collapse.
An ace pulled the Demons back to as close as 19-18 before Ignacio re-separated and went up 23-20 on Copp's unplanned KO of Gentry, who was denied later re-entry as a precaution. Still, RHS (12-1, 10-1) kept working and at last drew level at 23 on a Brynne Skalla spike off Kelly Campbell.
Rutherford (17k on .393 hitting, 12d) then landed a tip, but after hitting errors by Skalla and Robinson (8k at .400, 11d) gave IHS a chance at game point, ahead 26-25. But the visitors again tied and then took the game when Gomez hit wide and Skalla (5k at .375) sent over an unclaimed serve for the essential 2-games-to-0 advantage.
A Seibel cross-court kill knotted the score for the last time at 13-13, and after RHS skipper Amy Rutherford took a timeout the guests didn't waiver.
A Pollock block got the 'Cats as close as 18-15, but kills by Kaitlyn Rutherford and Skalla began what became a clinching 6-0 burst. Copp had the misfortune of giving IHS one last hope with a faulty serve on match point, but Skalla dashed that with a spike resulting in a disputed lift call against Forsythe (8 assists, 4 digs).
"We had some adversity-had a setter down-and played well with what we had! Alex.played so great today.adapted to her spot really well," stated Valdez, "and by that third set we played a lot better. It's a matter of.figuring each other out and we haven't had a lot of time to do that because that concussion was so quick."
"We're going to be more connected now. I think now everyone's going to be really humble, definitely," Seibel said after Ignacio totaled only 15 kills at a disappointing -.036 clip, "and not take the team for granted."
"We're going up-nowhere but up from here!"
Bumped from this week's CHSAANow.com 2A top 10-RHS moved in at #8-the Volleycats head to Telluride tomorrow.
