By Mike Weaver And Jim Thomas

Two of the local high school volleyball teams have risen to the top of the heap in their respective leagues as the 1999 season comes down the homestretch.

Tuesday (Oct. 12) at Durango, Montezuma-Cortez preserved its unbeaten league record with a 9-15, 15-5, 15-9 win over the Demons in Class 4A Southwestern League action.

Meanwhile, Dolores passes a milestone in its Class 2A volleyball quest. At Mancos, the Bears clinched the San Juan League championship with a 15-10, 17-15, 15-12 win over the Blue Jays. With the SJL crown on its guidon, the Bears will enter the District 3 Volleyball Tournament, Oct. 30 at Norwood, as the first seeded team and they have a guaranteed ticket to the Regional Tourney a week later.

Cortez tightened its grip on the top SWL spot Tuesday with its second season win over the Demons. It was a win that would not come easily to the Panthers, ranked fourth in last weeks 4A poll by The Denver Post/9News. Durango used the dink to good effect in the first game, and threw the Panther front out of kilter in the second game.

Cortez scored the first two points, but the Demons indicated the evening might be a long one when they started out with an ace and went on to put three more points on the board. Three sideouts later, Cortez began a five point run. When Casey Bauer scored kill, the score stood at 5-4 and the Panthers held a 6-4 lead after Lindsey Waggoner dinked the ball over for a point.

Durango stormed back. Logan Pierce made a kill and the score was 8-10. With Stephanie Allison at the line, the Panthers scored their last game point on an outbounded Durango ball. The Demons took control when they racked up six straight points on a variety of Cortez court violations.

In game two, the Panthers broke away after taking a 6-5 lead in six sideouts. The Panthers then put nine unanswered points up to go over the top. En route, Brianna McCabe and Waggoner combined for three aced serves and Mortensen and Stephanie Allison each scored kills.

Both teams scattered points and traded sideouts in the third game, and the Panthers were down 2-8 after sending seven servers to the line. Allison served for three points, and a Bauer began another three-point spurt with an ace to tie the score. Cortez rolled on with five more points to make the score 13-9. The run was interrupted by a Demon ace. Bauer put Durango away with back to back kills.

Saturday, Oct. 9, at Ron Wright Memorial Gymnasium, the Panthers kept their string of wins intact with a 15-4, 15-5 drubbing of Montrose. Both games had the Panthers written all over them.

Cortez broke a 1-1 tie with seven unanswered tallies in the first game and went on to outpoint the Indians 7-3. Bauer and McCabe hit kills to get points 14 and 15 for the Panthers.

Game two began more slowly, and it took four servers for both teams to get two points up. Behinds McCabe’s serving, the Panthers were good for a four point run, and it was catch up for the Indians thereafter. The score was 10-5 when the Panthers took game and match with five straight behind Waggoner’s serving.

Dolores clinched the regular-season San Juan League title Tuesday night with a win over Mancos in the Mancos Performance Center.

Mancos led 5-3 after the first rotation of the first game. But Erin Chanay put Dolores on top 9-7. The Blue Jays battled back and went up 9-10 but Dolores scored the next three points with April LeBlanc and Lindy Frederick. Dolores had seven blocked kills in the contest.

The Bears led 6-5 after the first rotation in the second game. Melissa Keller played well for Blue Jays. The Jays, led by Keller and the serving of Randee Reider, led 9-13. Dolores came back and tied the game at 14-all but Mancos, led by Reider, went on to win.

In the decisive third game, Dolores was down 1-6 to start. Ruthie Martin helped the Bears get caught up. Dolores went up 11-8 but Mancos came back and pulled within one at 11-12 before the Bears put the Jays away.

"I was very impressed that we could come back. They showed a lot of character," Dolores coach Joye McHenry commented. "We did not make a lot of hitting errors and we played pretty well."

Mancos defeated Nucla for the second time this season Saturday afternoon with an easy 15-5, 15-11 score in the Mancos Performance Center.

"As a whole I wish we would have been a little sharper," Mancos coach Bill Tourjee said after the match. "In the first game we played very well but in the second one we settled in played a very casual game."

In the first game, Mancos’ Abby Hutchinson showed a very steady hand at the service line. With the score 1-2, she served the ball for eight straight points. During the effort, teammate Randee Reider made four kills plus a tip. The Jays continued putting on the pressure and the Mustangs made mistakes. Holding a 9-5 lead, Kristin Paxton served for three straight when Nucla called time. Continuing to serve, she helped put the jays over the top at 15-5. Reider made a kill and Melissa Keller a block.

The second game was much closer in the best-of-three match. Nucla went up 1-3. After the teams exchanged several sideouts, the Jays scored three straight points with Hutchinson serving. Reider smashed the ball for kill. The score was tied 4-4 and Nucla went up 4-5 following a Blue Jay miscue. Mancos rallied to take a 7-5 advantage with Reider serving and the Mustangs making mistakes. The score was tied 8-8 but Hutchinson made an ace on her next rotation. Again Nucla battled back to tie at 9-all. But Paxton served for three straight to put her team up 12-9. Nucla scored two in a row and Tourjee needed a time-out at 12-11. The players listened and responded by scoring the next three points for the win with Reider serving.

Dolores County played a better match at Telluride last Saturday, but could not quite get over the hump and into the win column. They Bulldogs fell 12-15, 13-15.

In the first game, the Bulldogs were their own worst enemy through much of the match and found themselves down 1-14.

"I have to give them a lot of credit because they never gave up and made a really nice comeback to pull the score within three points," DCHS coach Melissa Wilson said. "We played well times and not so well at other times."

During one stretch Amber Randolph made five serves in a row. But for the match, the Bulldogs were 23-35 serving with many attempts going into the net. They went six serves before making a point to start. They did make seven kills.