IHS sweeps first foes in straight sets

Working for the weekend, and about as quickly as possible, Ignacio Volleyball encountered little difficulty Friday evening, August 28, in winning its first home match of the young 2026 campaign and ably following up on a season-opening road victory logged two days earlier.

Building upon a 25-5, 25-19, 25-19 sweep Wednesday, August 26, of 2A Southern Peaks Leaguers Del Norte out in Rio Grande County, skipper Jennifer Seibel’s varsity returned home to host 1A SPL member Antonito and trounced the rarely faced Lady Trojans 25-10, 25-7, 25-11.

Junior Alleah Neil, as expected, was practically indefensible and pounded down ten kills in 13 attacks with zero hitting errors – giving her a sizzling .769 percentage in the match. Senior Lainee Bradley put down eight kills at a .375 clip, and senior Tarah Baker three at a .429 rate.

Senior Kelly Sirios distributed 20 assists and also served a team-leading six aces. Baker was right behind with four as the Volleycats (2-0 overall, 0-0 2A/1A San Juan Basin) totaled 16. Junior Amira Montoya came up with eight digs and Bradley five, while Neil totaled a team-best four blocks – including three solo – to further unbalance AHS (1-3, 0-0 1A SPL).

Neil logged 11 kills (.400) and a solo block against DNHS and had much support offensively from senior Maliyah Martinez (6 kills, 11 digs) and senior Lily Quintana (4 kills). Sirios managed five kills while also racking up 20 assists and 20 digs against the rally-ready Lady Tigers; Bradley was credited with 17 digs and Quintana 16, while Montoya matched Martinez’s count and Baker (10) also reached double digits.

Looking ahead, the ’Cats will travel north and east to the Metro Area for the September 12 Denver Christian Invitational, always one of the state’s top early-season, small-school tournaments. Results of IHS’ non-league home match on the 3rd versus 2A Olathe (2-1, 2-1 2A/1A Western Slope prior to a 9/1 visit to SJBLers Telluride) were unavailable at press time.