Ignacio received one more point than Denver Christian as “Others Receiving Votes” teams in the week’s starting CHSAANow.com Class 2A volleyball poll.
On Thursday against Telluride, Ignacio perhaps showed why its stock had risen.
This Saturday, however, will be show-and-prove time.
The Volleycats, not even 48 hours removed from a 2A/1A San Juan Basin League sweep of visiting Telluride, will compete in the highly rated Denver Christian Thunder Invitational.
“I’m excited. I know we can compete with all the teams we play; that showed over the past weekend,” said junior Solymar Cosio. “We can compete, and when we play as a team, we can be the best we were last year … and better.”
“Every game, we’re getting a little better. And we’re getting smarter about things, so that’s good,” head coach Shasta Pontine said. “So I’m hoping that when we show up on Saturday, we play smart, and we play as hard as we can.”
Five of the aforementioned rankings’ top 10 teams – including No. 1 Sedgwick County of Julesburg – are scheduled to be in attendance, with IHS drawing No. 9 Holyoke for the 11 a.m. showdown. The winner will then face either Vail Mountain or host Thunder at 3 p.m.
On the other side of the bracket, SC and No. 7 Strasburg will battle and No. 6 Littleton Front Range Christian will duel No. 3 Meeker. The third- and seventh-place matches are tentatively set for 5 p.m., with the first- and fifth-place clashes at 7 p.m.
“It’ll be a big eye-opener,” said IHS senior Laci Brunson. “Once we see what we need to be like, maybe we’ll step up.”
“It’s going to be fun, and I hope for the best,” sophomore Marissa Olguin said.
Early on against Telluride, however, the ’Cats were just trying to survive.
Aggressors throughout Game 1, the Miners, loaded with new players and new skipper Lorrie Mahoney forced Ignacio to play from behind all the way and into extra points. After IHS failed to win game point at 26-25, senior Harmony Reynolds first blocked THS’ Clara Kunz to tie the score at 27, then put down a cross-court kill to bring up game point. Cosio then stuffed down a Telluride over-pass, resulting from a tricky serve from sophomore Ollyvia Howe, to give the ’Cats (5-4 overall, 2-1 SJBL) a 29-27 win.
“Yeah, we got surprised,” Olguin said. “We played good (at West Grand), then kind of came down a little bit.”
“We had to realize that we had to come together and talk, because it was very loud,” Cosio said. “We really had to focus in, because we did really good this past weekend; we had to play as that team and at that level.”
Helped by a service ace from senior Emma Righetti plus a middle tip courtesy senior newcomer Avery Compton, Telluride (3-7, 1-2) pressed Pontine into taking a timeout with IHS down 10-4 in Game 2.
Showing some of the resolve they’d displayed at last weekend’s West Grand Invitational in Kremmling, the Volleycats responded by going on a 9-1 run highlighted by junior Kacey Brown’s go-ahead corner ace that gave IHS a 12-11 lead. Mahoney took a timeout, but had to burn her second shortly after with Ignacio pulling away, 19-13, en route to a 25-20 win.
Brunson began Game 3 with an ace. After Righetti netted an attack, giving IHS a 4-3 lead, the home team pulled away and led, 17-7. The Miners rallied all the way back, closing to 20-17 and later to 22-19 via a kill by freshman Delia Noel. Unforced Telluride errors, however, allowed the ’Cats to complete a morale-boosting 29-27, 25-20, 25-19 sweep.
“We had to stop their hitting; in their warmups we saw that they were swinging,” said Cosio. “And we saw glimpses of that throughout – we knew that we had to shut them down, take them out of system so they couldn’t run those hits.”
“Unfortunately some nights go the other way,” Mahoney said. “We came alive, had some great kills, some great aces. ... But Ignacio, they’re scrappy; they picked up stuff we … thought was down. Still, it was a really fun, fun game.”
“We were trying to keep them out of system – beginning with the serve – so they couldn’t set (Righetti),” Pontine said. “But when they did set her. .... It was all about repetitions for my defense. This weekend is going to be our last tournament for the (regular) season, and it’ll be some good volleyball.”
