IHS sweeps SJBL contenders’ first clash
Expected to be near, or atop the San Juan Basin League’s Class 2A side – if not the whole dual-classification circuit – by season’s end, both Ignacio and Telluride finished their Sept.13 showdown standing 5-2 overall.
One side, however, exited IHS Gymnasium with its first SJBL loss in 2025.
It wasn’t the hosting Volleycats.
Still somewhat residually energized by their performance at the previous Saturday’s Denver Christian Invitational – at which they lost to, but actually swiped a set away from mighty Sedgwick County, the reigning CHSAA 2A State Champion – the ’Cats controlled Set 1, overcame THS’ credible Set 2 counterstrike, and ran away with Set 3 to log a 25-17, 25-19, 25-13 sweep.
“Going from Denver Christian to this … the wait was difficult – the only practice I had was yesterday; because of my hip, I’ve been in the trainer’s (room) all week – but we’d been working on our weaknesses and continuing to build on our strengths,” said junior Maliyah Martinez. “It was starting fresh; we know they’re good and we know we’re good. They have good hitters; we needed to be aware of that … and we had to keep our composure.”
“Telluride’s really good; I’ll give it to them,” junior Lainee Bradley said, “and I think when we played in Denver [Lakewood, to be specific] it really helped us with this game – and I think it’ll help us throughout our season too. I mean, it definitely gave us more confidence, going up and playing bigger teams, as a smaller school to get better at playing.”
What with a long bus ride down from San Miguel County, then a lengthy wait sitting in the bleachers while C-team and JV action played out, it wasn’t exactly a shock that, in Set 1, the Lady Miners weren’t yet functioning at full power. Unable to take advantage of serving first, THS fell behind 1-0 when senior Lori Gleria netted an attack.
Telluride then tied – thanks to IHS junior Kelly Sirios serving long – the score at 1-1, but after junior Ella Metheny returned the gift, giving the ’Cats a 2-1 edge, the guests never again managed to at least pull even. Bradley then aced THS senior Delia Noel, junior Reggi Gustafson followed that with a kill glancing off the same standout, sophomore middle Alleah Neil dispatched an over-pass misplayed by THS senior setter Lillyann Mahoney, and Bradley capped off the burst with a service ace.
Neil would stuff THS senior Tori Sanders twice as Ignacio’s advantage grew to 15-9, pressing Telluride head coach Lorrie Mahoney into using a timeout. She’d spend her allotted second with the Lady Miners down 20-10, after Noel passed poorly to attack-ready senior Sonja Rikkers, and despite closing to 23-17, Telluride went down 1-0 in the match when Martinez lashed a kill over Gleria and paralleling the sideline.
“Our defense, especially serve-receive, was good. They’re just a really scrappy team and we couldn’t get things down,” THS sophomore Hazel Noel said, “so that let to us making silly mistakes at the net.”
Regrouping well in enemy territory, Telluride took a 2-1 lead early in Set 2, via junior Ellarose Aplin’s rejection of Neil, and increased it to 10-4 thanks to two Delia Noel kills and a roll shot over Neil by senior Tori Sanders. Ignacio (5-2 overall; 2-0 SJBL, 2-0 2A SJBL), however, fought back to 11-10 via a Bradley kill and at last re-tied the score at 14-all after THS’ Lori Gleria sent a back-row attack long.
The Lady Miners (5-2; 2-1, 1-1) would regain the lead again at 16-15, until an ace by IHS libero Tarah Baker brought the ’Cats back to 17-17. The sides then swapped errors and a netted Noel tip gave Ignacio a 19-18 lead which they’d not lose the rest of the way. And after Maliyah Martinez served at set point, 24-19, THS managed nothing offensively and Sirios was then able to set Bradley for a clinching kill.
Aplin terminated a Mahoney set to level Set 3 at 2-2, but after IHS won the next point, Bradley held serve for the next five – one coming via an ace deflected sideways by Metheny and sharply into junior libero Ford Fenton’s face. Still not ready to surrender, the Lady Miners soon fought back to 12-8 before Ignacio strung together six straight points including two Bradley kills and two netted Sanders tries.
The ’Cats closed out the match with a 5-0 run capped by a Gustafson scoring attack, and ultimately an Aplin netted try after Sirios served Rikkers at match point, 24-13.
“I like that we’re swinging, for sure; we’re definitely going to work on it in practice – more than we already do,” Fenton said. “But we’d had a couple not-as-tough teams leading into this, and we came in kind of – I think – a bit cocky. They were good; I mean, when we hit, they got everything up. That was a big part of it, and it was frustrating for sure.”
“Energy’s the biggest thing that kept us up tonight – my serves in particular,” Martinez said. “We are a defense-built team and so we knew that we couldn’t let the ball drop; we had to focus on our digs … and go for anything and everything.”
Looking ahead, Ignacio will host rebuilding 1A Dove Creek, with just one win (zero in SJBL play) in eight outings to date, on Saturday, Sept. 20. Results from the Volleycats’ 9/18 trip to Norwood (2-7; 0-2 SJBL, 0-1 1A SJBL) were unavailable at press time.
DENVER CHRISTIAN INVITATIONAL (9/6) FINAL STANDINGS:
1.Denver Christian, 2.Sedgwick County (Julesburg/Ovid Revere), 3.IGNACIO, 4.Strasburg, 5.Buena Vista, 6.Vail Mountain, 7.Littleton Front Range Christian, 8.Colorado Springs Fountain Valley. IHS RESULTS: W 3-0 over Front Range Christian; L 1-3 to Sedgwick County; W 3-0 over Strasburg.