SAN LUIS VALLEY – Having lost exactly zero players to graduation a few months ago, Alamosa figured to be dangerous on the volleyball floor this fall. Just how dangerous? Bayfield found out firsthand Thursday night inside AHS Gymnasium.
And despite valiant go-for-broke play in set three, the visitors’ hard-earned 19-18 advantage crumbled as the Mean Moose, helped by senior Taybor Wiedeman’s three-point stay on serve, surged ahead 23-19 and soon polished off a 25-8, 25-9, 25-21 sweep when no Wolverines tried making the second touch after initially fielding sophomore Addison Rice’s serve.
Alamosa improved to 7-2 overall and 2-0 in the 3A Intermountain League with the win. Bayfield fell to 3-6 overall and 0-2 in the 3A IML with the loss.
“You take your foot off the gas, and that opens the door for people to walk in,” BHS head coach Terene Foutz said. “That’s what we did. My team’s learning the hard way, starting with a simmer before they boil, and we’re going to have to keep learning until we start fast.”
Senior setter Tanna Owens began the match on serve for Bayfield but Alamosa promptly scored the first point and never looked back. Foutz burned a timeout after a Wiedeman ace swelled AHS’ lead to 11-4, but a 7-0 burst with Rice holding serve inflated that pad to an ultra-comfortable 18-6, and the Moose locked up a 1-0 match lead via a kill by junior middle Aubrey Rothermich and an ace – flummoxing BHS junior libero Lauren Rich and junior middle Grace Barber – by senior setter Morgan Ortega.
Lady Wolverine senior right-side hitter Audrey Knapp began set two with a kill knocking Rice off serve, but after regaining a 3-2 lead Alamosa raced ahead 10-2, despite Foutz’s preemptive timeout used after a Rothermich blast put AHS up 7-2. After acing Rich, Ortega mercifully netted a serve, giving Bayfield – down 10-3 – the ball, but the guests got no closer than 11-5 via a kill by senior outside hitter Christiana Sutherlin.
AHS countered with back-to-back scoring blocks plus an ace by junior Arreli Felix, and soon put the stanza out of reach via a 6-0 spree with Rice again controlling the serve. Cruising 22-8 before Rice then served out of bounds, AHS clinched a two-set edge in the contest thanks to a Rothermich kill, an Owens set error at the strings, and a netted Bayfield attack.
“She works hard in the classroom, in the weight room, in the offseason …. I mean, she’s a rock,” Mortensen said of Rothermich, complemented well by right-side Wiedeman, senior middle Lily Heersink and sophomore reserve outside hitter Kadie Hawkins. “When we serve aggressively …. We’re not playing for aces; we’re trying to disrupt the offense. We’ve focused on that, and I think … we did, which allowed us to maintain that same serving.”
Rothermich admitted it was a somewhat rocky third set. But Alamosa communicated well to help with its hitting. blocking and setting.
“We’d serve, like, seams and stuff – their libero (Rice) and Number 11 (Rothermich) … we’d serve away from those two,” BHS junior outside/middle Evelette Hollibaugh said. “Once we started … feeling more confident, we played a lot better. Getting more serves in … helped us a lot; we played very scared at the beginning – because of the (9/10) Cortez game – but after that we started to really want to beat Alamosa, kind of sped it up more.”
Hoping not to misfire at higher speeds, Bayfield will next welcome Pagosa Springs at 6 p.m. on Tuesday
Alamosa, meanwhile, will next host 3A Gunnison (7-0 overall) and 2A Hoehne (5-3) on the Saturday. in nonleague action.
