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Oct. 14, 2000 BY JIM THOMAS Got volleyball?
Montezuma-Cortez High School certainly does. The varsity Panthers, with a whipping of Durango 15-9, 15-1 Thursday, Oct. 12, at DHS Gym, clinched no worse than a tie for the Southwest League volleyball title. A win over Grand Junction High on Oct. 20 or a win over Central of Grand Junction on Oct. 21 will give the Panthers the title outright. Because of their head-to-head wins over Montrose, the Class 4A no. 2 ranked Panthers already have the top seed for the District Tournament in a couple weeks. In the first game against the Demons, Cortez jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead thanks to kills by Stefanie Allison and Casey Bauer. The Demons tied the match at 2-2 but then with Colette Hall serving, the Panthers reeled off seven unanswered points. During that span Bauer, an outside hitter, was dominating with three kills. The Demons slowly pecked away and soon Cortez’ advantage dropped to 9-4. After the teams traded a couple sideouts and a point each, Durango pulled within a point at 10-9. During that span Blair Murphy made a kill that sent the ball right down the line and Carlee Kulovitz made a key block. At that point, MCHS coach Lindy Mortensen called time. "We were making some passing errors. We got totally out of our system," Mortensen said following the game. "But we regained our composure and started playing like we should." The Panthers went on to score the final five points of the game. Hall and Denise Newlin combined on a nice block. Durango, meanwhile, made several hitting errors. In the second contest, it didn’t take long for the Panthers to get rolling. At 1-0, Allison stepped to the service line. And before she was done, Cortez was up 9-0. She made a nice short serve for an ace, Bauer made a well-placed spike between the front and back row, and then Allison served for two more aces. A ball hit into the net by the Panthers gave the Demons a point. Then Bauer, behind the serving of Hall, made two kills and a block. Cortez was up 12-1 and DHS coach Michelle Brown called time out. Hall continued serving. Bauer made a kill, Newlin made a nice kill to the end line, and the Demons put themselves out of their own misery with four hits which ended the game and match. "I thought we had good ball control during the second game," Mortensen commented. "We played pretty good defense most of the time." Bauer was simply "Awesome Baby" as ESPN announcer Dick Vitale says. She did everything right on the floor. "She put in a lot of time over the summer and it is paying off. But all the girls put in a lot of time this past summer. They are all working hard and I’m proud of them," Mortensen added. Telluride 2, Dove Creek 0 Cortez JVs 2, Dove Creek 1 The Bulldogs played a pretty good match against MCHS JVs in a nonconference match on Tuesday, Oct. 10, in Ron Wright Memorial Gym. The Bulldogs, who have a young team this year, won the first game 15-13 and then lost 3-15, 8-15. "It was quite a good match for us," first-year Dolores County coach Scott Crawford reported. "(Senior and team captain) Krystal Neely was out. But I thought freshman Lacy Pribble played very well in stepping in at outside hitter. She also made seven service points. It was perhaps our best team effort, despite us not winning." Crawford also cited the play of middle blockers Erin Fury and Stephanie Baughman. Against Telluride, Crawford really didn’t have much to say. Telluride defeated the Bulldogs 2-15, 2-15. The Bulldogs hosted Norwood Friday night, Oct. 13, and then visit Mancos at about noon today, Nov. 14. |
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