PAGOSA SPRINGS-It was a battle in pink.
Intermountain League powerhouse Bayfield travelled east hoping for a win, and they got one, albeit against a tough opponent on Tuesday for Pagosa's Breast Cancer Awareness match.
It wasn't an easy victory, however.
"We made some mental mistakes," admitted BHS junior Maddi Foutz. "It wasn't that we were, like, playing terrible; we just were being aggressive and sometimes that happens."
"I think we all psyched ourselves out a lot about it," sophomore Jade Pascale concurred, "but then we got over it and pushed through. Blocked all of them out and it worked out for us really well."
Determined to keep pace with league-leading Alamosa at all costs-a Bayfield loss at PSHS, coupled with AHS' away sweep of Centauri would have clinched the title for the Mean Moose-the Wolverines displayed a most armor-clad attitude in Game 3. That started with senior Brooke Kudelski's most vicious slam yet in the contest-off an enemy and high up into the Pagosa gym's elevated rafters.
"You know, there's really no 'pressure' on Brooke," head coach Terene Foutz said of her senior hitter, who moved recently to Bayfield from Pagosa Springs, "She's just wanting to play that last season to the best of her ability and have the most fun she can! Tonight was an example of that."
Given it was the last time she might play inside her former digs-volleyball pun intended-however, there was a more visible urgency for the former Pirate. And a confidence; a massive overpass-kill preceded a long Pagosa spike in an attempted response, and Springs Coach Connie O'Donnell took a needed timeout with Foutz in the midst of a key six-point serving run.
"Serving was.huge; it helped us the entire night," Pascale said. "The most important part, definitely.
Trailing 19-10 at that moment, a deficit O'Donnell had seen BHS deal her side in what ended up a 17-25 loss in Game 1, there was only minimal hope for a comeback. It was doomed almost immediately when sophomore Courtney Bayles stuffed down a PSHS overpass, classmate Kylee McCoy drilled a kill off the side of a block and then paired with Pascale to stonewall Farrah.
Springs sophomore Morgan Lewis then served long, trailing 24-13, and Bayfield's recovery was complete with a 2-games-to-1 advantage. It was a good thing too; Game 4 would be the only stanza in which the teams battled back and forth as expected at the outset.
"It was definitely not what we were expecting! We were expecting it to be a lot closer, expecting their crowd to be really intense-which they were-but we expected them to affect us a lot more," Pascale said, of the Wolverines' dominance in Games 1 and 3, in which BHS took the lead for good at 8-7, and 10-9 respectively.
Bayfield started Game 4 well-a Foutz ace, Pagosa senior Miah Pitcher hitting into the net, and a Kudelski kill for a 3-1 lead-but soon found themselves trading points almost evenly. In fact, the score was tied nine times but the Wolverines managed to take the point breaking every deadlock and kept PSHS from building momentum.
Their reward was a 17-16 advantage which they'd not lose again, and a closing series of events that couldn't have been any more fitting to punctuate such an essential victory.
Sophomore Ashley Mottin mashed a kill to up BHS' lead to 20-17, and Foutz followed with two inspired aces off senior libero Remy Oney, pressing O'Donnell into another stoppage. But Foutz then switched targets and sent an ace off senior Madi Lewis' right arm and into the pro-Pirate crowd. Walking on Cloud Nine, Kudelski then terminated a Bayles set to bring up match point with PSHS needing seven scores just to pull even.
Foutz narrowly missed a winning ace past the line judge, and Pirate sophomore Faith Ahlhardt blocked Kudelski, but Farrah then netted the night's last swing and BHS locked up a 25-17, 18-25, 25-13, 25-19 conquest.
"We've got to finish," head Coach Terene Foutz said. "We've known that the IML has been up for grabs and we're looking forward to these matches. There's a mental shift that's taking place on our team; we know we're going hard out of the gate because we know we can."
Kudelski paced the Wolverines (9-8, 5-1 IML) with 14 kills and also had five digs, while Foutz registered a 13-kill, 16-dig double-double and totaled six aces. Bayles (20 assists) and sophomore Sydney Gabbard (19) were again mutually effective running the offense, while junior libero Emily Bauer's 17 digs kept Springs' big guns-Farrah, Ahlhardt, Pitcher-from sighting in fully.
"Everyone sees all the flashy stuff, but they never see all the blood and sweat that goes into practice. At the end, that's really what counts," said Maddi Foutz. "We gave everything tonight, and when you're back there serving at the end of the game you're not doing it for yourself. You're doing it for the team."
Season-swept by BHS in eight total games-Alamosa (18-2, 7-0) needed nine-PSHS dipped to 13-7, 3-4.
"I don't think we've been pushed like that before," said Maddi Foutz. "And now that we have I think that really showed us what our potential is, and how good that we can really be. So it was exciting."
Up next, the Wolverines host Centauri (11-8, 1-5) at 4 p.m. Friday, Oct. 23, then-barring catastrophe-Alamosa on Tuesday, Oct. 27, to crown an IML champion.
"If you were to talk to me a month ago.we were a different team at that time, but now we're starting to believe," Coach Terene Foutz said. "There's no question.we cannot wait for the upcoming matches! We're ready."
