IHS Volleyball hosts, wins regional to advance
Michele Roy knew something was terribly wrong.
And after having already seen her team fall behind 7-1 in the Class 2A-Region XI tournament finale’s opening set Friday afternoon, Nov. 7, but having done nothing at the time to slow the foe’s roll, Rye’s head coach was quick in Set 4 to spend her first allotted timeout after Ignacio again surged ahead by six.
Unfortunately for RHS, the Volleycats had – and Roy could probably sense that – reverted to their dominating, wire-to-wire Set 1 form. And as the pace after the pause continued mimicking that which had put the event-hosting side up 1-0 in what was expected to be a heated best-of-five, IHS’ players ensured the ending would be relatively, and pleasantly anticlimactic.
Two kills in short order by sophomore Alleah Neil keyed a 6-0 burst increasing Ignacio’s lead to 18-7, and having wisely used her second – and, as things turned out, last – stoppage in hopes of halting the run, Roy could only hope her Lady Thunderbolts could force Jennifer Seibel’s ’Cats – seeded 11th in the Round-of-36; Rye was the No. 14 – to, well, short-circuit.
Not a chance.
Ignacio first reached match point, 24-13, when Rye senior Taylor Pye netted an attempted roll shot. With all the available leeway a team could want, the ’Cats barely blinked after senior Alyssa Atencio’s potential match-clinching kill sailed long, and on the very next exchange, senior Juliann Avila placed a hard roll shot deep into the center of RHS’ back row, out of sophomore Gloriana Ruiz’s reach – finalizing a 25-12, 23-25, 25-19, 25-14 victory advancing IHS into the 2025 CHSAA State Championships.
“Hosting was awesome; it offered a lot of challenges that we had to move through, and we get to build on that experience for…whatever the future holds for us! This experience is a stepping stone for that,” Seibel said. “We have to fight from here on out; nothing’s going to come easy. We’re going to have to depend on what works for us, and that’s playing smart, just really focusing on what’s in front of us.”
“We’d obviously watched a lot of film on Ignacio, so we kind of expected a lot of what we saw today. They are a very scrappy team and have fantastic defense, so we knew that’s what we were going to see – and that we would have to match it,” Roy said. “Unfortunately, we just made too many mistakes overall to be able to pull out the win.”
“This is my fourth year coaching, and this group of seniors I’ve had since (they were) freshmen. My daughter (libero Seine Roy) is one of them, so unfortunately it was not the ending we’d wanted as a family but also me as a coach,” she added. “They’ve played together since they were little, so it’s been great to see them grow and develop over the years into the team they were. Losing seven seniors…. Next year it’ll be an interesting dynamic when I come back for summer ball and see what I have and who’s willing to step into those roles.”
“To get to this point, that means a lot to me especially because we only have two seniors,” noted IHS sophomore reserve Aubriella Herrera, whose serving off the bench allowed Seibel to rest junior regular Reggi Gustafson’s hurting, but well-wrapped rib cage. “Our team’s pretty young so I think that just shows, like, how hard-working we are.”
“Yeah, I don’t know how they were (seeded) so low,” said junior setter Kelly Sirios. “They were a very good team, and I think we really didn’t expect that. So, we really had to persevere; every ball was up and we were just really scrappy.”
“It’s a big weight lifted off my shoulders,” she added, letting the reality of going to State for a second time start to sink in. “Practice was rough this week, and it worked out.”
“It was like we were playing a doppelganger; they only had a little height on us, but their defense was the same…basically everything that they’d done was the same as us,” said junior Lainee Bradley, who began the match with consecutive scoring shots, and later iced IHS’ Set 1 win with an emphatic service ace.
“I just felt like we all had something to prove, and that…really made me want to go and push even more, be the best I could,” she continued. “Like, I was telling everyone ‘Leave everything on the floor! This could be our last game!’”
But in order to bounce back from a Set 2 loss, in which the ’Cats never led, forged just one tie (17-17, after completing an arduous climb out of a 10-3 hole), but still came as close as 24-23 before Rye senior Bella Bond won a battle at the net, Ignacio had to recall what worked to avoid a tourney-beginning, first-set loss to underdog Hoehne.
Seeded 26th, the Lady Farmers started the day taking a 2-1 lead and building it up to as great as 12-5. HHS still held leads of 14-8 and 15-9 before back-to-back Bradley kills, plus a Neil block on HHS sophomore Paisley San Roman keyed a 7-0 run turning the tide of not only the set, but the still-young match. Ignacio regained the lead again at 18-17 and reached set point, 24-20, via an Avila roll shot off Hoehne freshman Kaylee Schlensker’s block.
HHS sophomore Jazlynn Ossola then netted a weakly-attempted roll, giving the ’Cats a 1-0 match lead which became 2-0 after a more methodical 25-16 Set 2 win. San Roman began Set 3 with a rare solo block on Neil, but after the Lady Farmers went up 3-1, IHS countered with a 6-0 run – including junior Maliyah Martinez’s tying tip shot, followed by go-ahead aces by junior libero Tarah Baker – earning a lead which wouldn’t be lost.
In fact, Hoehne got no closer the rest of the way than 7-4, before Ignacio tore the set wide open with an 8-0 spree, and Herrera holding serve for its last seven points before Schlensker put down a kill. But the ’Cats reached match point, 24-10, via Neil tooling a kill off San Roman’s block, and after HHS junior Braylee Foster managed a roll shot, secured a 25-20, 25-16, 25-11 sweep when San Roman then served long.
“I was proud of them pulling themselves together after the initial shock of ‘Oh my gosh, we’re hosting in our gym!’ and all those butterflies that they had. I called a timeout…and gave them the option of ‘Are you going to respond? Or crack? Ultimately, it’s your choice, collectively.’ We could either be embarrassed in our gym or we could get it together,” Seibel said.
“We’re in this together, win or lose, and they had the fire; I could see it in their eyes, that determination – and the realization of ‘Oh wow, we’re down pretty far.’ And battling like that really shows how much fight they have when we’re tested. I didn’t ‘love’ it, but going through it…was needed to get them back to reality.”
“I think we were a little scared at first and then we gained confidence throughout the match,” Neil admitted. “Me and Kelly kind of started off slow…needed to figure out our connection, and then…just seeing the court – that’s something I’ve been trying to work on in practice, changing up my shots and seeing what is open. So, yeah, it was good.”
“I feel like a lot of our energy stems from talking, and if we’re not communicating balls get dropped and we just are, like, all over the place and it looks a mess, you know? So we started talking more, kept our energy up and played relaxed.”
Rye then eliminated Hoehne (11-14 overall) in the second match, winning 25-12, 25-16, 25-14 over their Santa Fe League rival, before the loss to IHS left the Lady Thunderbolts standing 18-7 and looking ahead to 2026.
“All of the seniors came in, gave it to the rest of our team, like, in effort. And I think our underclassmen saw that and took that as, like, ‘I want to win for them.’ We all just wanted to win,” said RHS’ Bond, “and after a set loss kind of kicks you in the butt you try your hardest; you don’t want to go out in three, you want to fight.”
“I love everybody on my team and they’re what makes the game fun for me; they come to practice and bust their butt, make it fun and make me laugh,” she added. “I won’t remember wins or losses because that’s not the memorable part; I’ll remember friendships I made and people who’ve impacted me throughout my time.”
Having improved to 21-4 overall, the Volleycats will have the chance to make even more memories while competing inside the Denver Coliseum. Re-seeded tenth out of the remaining 12 teams, Ignacio was to first face No. 7 Sedgwick County (19-6 overall) Thursday afternoon, Nov. 13, but results were unavailable at press time.
“I think here at the end of the season we’re really tight and trust each other. And we play our game well,” Gustafson said. “We’re all very focused – not only on State, but focused on our next game; the fight’s not over yet.”
“Oh yeah. I think we’re going to have to play just like today,” Bradley said. “Using our I.Q. and playing the best game that we can play – that we know we can play.”
The winner was to then face 2-seed Denver Christian (21-4) that same evening, while the loser would next play on the 14th at 9:30 a.m. against the loser of No. 1 Simla (23-2) and either No. 8 Wiggins (18-7) or No. 9 Buena Vista (21-4).
The State Championship match is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15.