Maintaining through a loss, the Ignacio volleycats at last found a way to net their first win of 2015 last Saturday, sweeping Ouray 25-14, 25-12, 25-18 in the teams' 2A/1A San Juan Basin League opener.

But make no mistake; the squad wouldn't mind having back sophomore Chasity Bean's blocking depth and "volleyball I.Q." as noted in head coach Thad Cano's post-match comments.

"We love Chasity and we miss her a lot," senior libero Chrystianne Valdez said of her teammate's choice to leave the fold. "And I think that even though she's gone, it helped us find our 'team' a lot."

"We had to take in new positions-we have middles on our right side, have outsides as middles-so now it probably looks like a mess, but as a team we're figuring out a way to work through that.and that really helped us."

Ignacio was coming off last Thursday's thorough five-game battle inside IHS Gymnasium against 3A Monte Vista. Ouray had fallen in three to 1A Grand Junction Caprock Academy the night before the early departure for Ignacio (1-2, 1-0 SJBL), so the hosts' fuel tanks were noticeably fuller than the visitors'.

And after fending off the Trojans' early Game 1 advance-the score was tied at 7-all-the 'Cats were not to be caught. Ouray gave IHS their absolute best in Game 3 before junior Alex Forsythe spiked match point.

"We went in NOT going power-serving; we went in to go placement-serving.the girls did phenomenal," Cano said, while not discounting the effectiveness of his side's service-line skills. "We still have to work on.making a kill out of a free-ball but everything is coming along very, very well. I'm very happy, very pleased."

"I think we did fairly well with that, yeah," agreed senior Miel Diaz. "I don't think we got as many free-balls as we had expected, but I feel we put to use the things that we had got."

Forsythe had notched a team-high 11 kills versus MVHS and Diaz seven. Sophomore setter Shoshone Thompson distributed 26 assists, and Forsythe again led IHS with five kills versus OHS (0-3, 0-1). Diaz, Valdez, junior Kelly Campbell and senior Ellie Seibel each had four kills and Thompson finished with 12 helpers.

Ignacio also totaled 15 blocks in the two outings, with Diaz's five (4 solo, 1 assist) tops in the 22-25, 26-28, 25-21, 25-16, 12-15 loss to Monte Vista and Campbell's three (3s, 0a) the most against Ouray. Valdez and Seibel each totaled 16 digs defensively, and Forsythe fired a team-high nine of IHS' 34 aces.

"Serving's the biggest part of our game," Valdez said. "I think we're going to focus more on our hitting, because our serves are already on point. Our hitting is what's coming next!"

Up next, Ignacio heads north to face #7-ranked Ridgway tomorrow, with action beginning at noon. Results from last night's trip to Mancos (1-3, 0-1 going in) were unavailable at press time, but Cano was confident his crew would meet the challenge.

"Probably the thing I'm most pleased with is.I have a team," he stated. "I have great senior leadership.and they're coming together very well."