Unable to prolong their season into one of 12 Class 2A volleyball regional tournaments with an outside shot at advancing to the State Championships in Denver, Ignacio had to settle simply for one last taste of success.
Traveling east into Pueblo County for the Oct. 26-27 Rye Invitational, IHS managed to sweep 3A Trinidad and improve to a 2018-ending 8-15 overall, while the Lady Miners dropped to 7-16.
Numbers from the match were still unavailable as of Monday afternoon, Nov. 5.
The Volleycats finished 43rd in CHSAA’s last regular-season RPI calculations, while just 36 teams qualified for the postseason and were mostly seeded into their respective three-team brackets by those figures.
Looking for a more competitive showing than in an 11-25, 16-25, 11-25 loss at 3A Montezuma-Cortez on the 23rd, the ’Cats hit RHS running and channeled their energy directly into the Lady Thunderbolts (ranked #6 in the 10/22 CHSAANow.com 2A poll) with an electric 28-26 Game 1 win. But in getting reported match-bests of 19 kills and 23 digs from senior Rachel Shaffer, Rye recovered from the shocker to take Game 2 by a massive 25-9 margin.
Game 3 was more to Ignacio’s liking, though the Lady ’Bolts held on to win 25-20 and gain the advantage in the match. Protecting their home floor – as well as their standing in the classification’s RPI table – RHS, also getting a reported 15-kill, 11-dig double-double from senior Hannah Ambler, controlled Game 4 25-11 to secure a shaky 3-1 victory.
Day 2 at the event began with the ’Cats challenging 2A Sanford – a battle between schools more prone to seeing each other on a postseason basketball court – and challenging well. SHS held off IHS’ approaches in Game 1, winning 25-23, and gained more breathing room with a 25-14 win in Game 2.
Seeking to at least build some sort of momentum to face THS, if not completely stun the Lady Indians in five beforehand, Ignacio fought Sanford hard in Game 3 but fell 29-27. Statistics were also unavailable by press time.
The Lady ’Bolts – rulers of the 2A Santa Fe League – could have thanked the Volleycats for wearing SHS down, as they then rolled 25-12, 25-6, 25-17 in the tournament’s championship match and improved to 19-3 overall prior to hosting 2A-Region VII on Saturday, Nov. 3.