The Bayfield High School volleyball team turned in another balanced performance and swept Pagosa Springs 25-16, 25-15, 25-14 on Thursday night in Pagosa Springs.
The Wolverines took control of the match at the service line and carried the momentum from keeping their serves in play to other parts of their game.
“We eliminated a lot of unforced errors, hitting errors and serving errors, and I think that really made a difference for us tonight,” Bayfield head coach Danica Frost said. “We did a lot of work in practice this week to protect our serves and getting more than just one or two serves in. It makes a huge difference and is great momentum.”
Thursday marked the final match in 3A Intermountain League play for the Wolverines, who finished second in the league standings behind Centauri, which went 10-0 in league play.
Frost said the Wolverines (12-6, 8-2 IML) had a bit of a slow start against the Pirates (10-9, 5-5 IML), but quickly picked things up and increased their focus and intensity.
Bayfield’s attack at the net was pretty balanced with several players recording multiple kills, but Frost said the Wolverines got a big game out of senior Kylee McCoy, who led the team with 13 kills.
The Wolverines also got a strong showing from junior Jannika Pope, who moved into the starting lineup for Sydney Gabbard, who was dealing with an illness and missed the match.
Bayfield will be off until Tuesday when they meet up with rival Durango (12-4) in a nonleague match at DHS. Bayfield came back from an 0-2 deficit to beat the Demons in five sets when the two teams met on Sept. 26 in Bayfield.
“This time we’re really focusing on getting out of the gate faster and taking the first set. We don’t want to allow a two-set deficit to happen again,” Frost said of the upcoming match. “Durango is a tough match for us and it would be another great win, especially to upset them in their home.”
Ignacio High School’s volleyball team overcame a 2-1 set deficit to top Mancos in five sets Thursday night in Ignacio.
The Bobcats (8-10, 7-5 2A/1A San Juan Basin League) took the first set from Mancos (5-12, 2-9 SJBL) 25-13, but dropped the second and third sets 24-26 and 18-25 before settling down to take the fourth and fifth sets 25-20 and 15-9.
Ignacio will close out the regular season on Saturday with a trip to Ridgway to face Demons (10-5, 7-3).
kschneider@durangoherald.com
