With wicked weather earlier this week walloping the Metro Area and likely to linger into the weekend, nobody’s probably going to be traveling at freeway equivalents anywhere close to Star Trek-esque warp speed.
Whenever the resurgent Bayfield Wolverines arrive in Thornton, there probably won’t be any Doctor Who-ish special effects visible when they enter Stargate School for postseason volleyball in the 2024 CHSAA Class 3A Region 10 Regional.
Bayfield improved to 9-3 in all October/November action to date by polishing off regular season play with a 2-2 showing at the Colorado Invitational in Colorado Springs last weekend.
The Wolverines, which went just 6-17 overall last year – will next commence work at the 3A-Region X Championships on Saturday against Denver-based Colorado Academy. Following 27-seed CA’s 10 a.m. contest against No. 10 Stargate, the match is expected to begin around 11:30 a.m.
Stargate will then clash at roughly 1 p.m. with 15-seed Bayfield (14-9 overall, 5-3 Intermountain) in the third and final match – with a trip to the state championships in Denver likely at stake.
Enjoying the best varsity campaign in its brief high school history, head coach Sidney Apodaca’s tourney-hosting Eagles won’t be overlooked by Foutz’s Wolverines; Stargate posted a 19-4 regular-season record and placed second behind Lafayette Peak to Peak, in the 3A/2A Metro.
Colorado Academy, meanwhile, took third in the same league – having lost 3-2 to Peak to Peak and 3-0 at Stargate – but will enter the postseason at 12-11. After losing four of their first five matches, the Mustangs finished with a five-set loss – their fifth so far in ’24 – at home to Springs-based 3A The Classical Academy (17-6 overall), a force in the 4A/3A C.S. Metro-North.
IGNACIO ALIVE IN 2A: Though unable to conclude regular-season play with a victory inside IHS Gymnasium – a stout 1A Sargent side saw to that, prevailing 25-16, 25-22, 19-25, 25-20 – Ignacio’s Volleycats will take their show on the road to begin the postseason.
Given the No. 24 seed in the Class 2A and placed in the Regional 1 2A Regional, Jennifer Seibel’s squad will venture out to Elbert County to play at top-seeded Simla. Also in attendance will be 36-seed Colorado Springs St. Mary’s (12-11 overall), which will test SHS (22-1) in the event’s 9 a.m. opener.
Ignacio (14-9 overall; 10-2 2A/1A San Juan Basin, 7-1 2A SJBL) will then face SMHS before seeing Simla in the afternoon finale. Scouting out the Lady Cubs beforehand could be a saving grace for the ’Cats; SHS had capped its regular-season schedule with a bang, defeating vaunted Sedgwick County – state runner-up in 2023 and state champion in ’21 and ’22 – on Saturday in four up at Revere H.S. in Ovid.
“At this point, anything can go; any team can be beaten on any given day,” Seibel said in a recent interview. “So we feel pumped …. But I still tell my girls that … identifying momentum and keeping that momentum – and that’s not always by a kill; that’s by keeping the ball in play, being patient and letting (opposing teams) make mistakes – that’s our game.”
