MHS captures berth in Region C volley tourney

MHS captures berth in Region C volley tourney

Nov. 2, 2000

BY JIM THOMAS
Sports Editor

Who would have thought it?

Realistically, not even first-year head coach Mona Shepherd could have thought this year’s inexperienced team would make it to Regionals at the start of the season. After all, the Blue Jays had lost all of their starters and several key reserves off a team that advanced to Regionals the season before.

The Blue Jays, with only one player with any varsity experience, continued to improve through the regular season. They played well against most of the San Juan Basin League teams. They won their final two league games of the season decisively which gave them momentum heading into Districts as the no. 3 seeded team.

"Remember, we started the season 0-8 before we won a match," Shepherd recalled. "We thought at that point we were probably going to play in the pigtail game. Then we improved and played better and our short-term goal was to avoid the pigtail game. And then we continued to win some matches and we wanted to see how high we could finish in the league standings."

And then the Blue Jays exceeded expectations by playing very well at that tournament in Nucla.

Mancos, well below .500 at 7-12 overall, qualified for the Class AA Regionals at Palisade this Saturday., Nov. 4, at Palisade High School Gym. The Blue Jays certainly will be the Cinderella team of the tourney.

It will be a round-robin tournament. The Blue Jays will open play against West Grand (18-4) at 9 a.m. Telluride will play Grand Valley (16-6) at 10:15. West Grand will meet Grand Valley at 11:30. Telluride will play Mancos at 12:45 p.m. Mancos will play immediately following that match against Grand Valley at 2 p.m. Telluride will play West Grand at 3:15. If things go well, Cinderella will get a chance to dance at the ball. If things don’t go well, Cinderella will be left sitting in the cinders dreaming. Only the top two teams from the Region C Tournament will advance to the Class 2A State Volleyball Championships in the Denver Coliseum, set Nov. 10-11.

"Grand Valley is the team for us to beat. They have such a big and talented team. This is the key match. I think Grand Valley has had an average season and I think they are more beatable. Telluride is a team we can beat. But the girls will have to play every game like it was the game of their lives," Shepherd commented.

The Region A tournament consists of Sanford (13-6), Swink (20-1), Crested Butte (14-6), and Wiley (18-4). The Region B tournament features Caliche (21-1), Heritage Christian (17-3), Holyoke (10-10), and Alexander Dawson (13-6). The Region D tourney has defending champ Fowler (17-5), Strasburg (16-7), Custer County (13-10), and Byers (21-2).

Telluride, which won the San Juan Basin League regular-season title (15-6), was projected into the championship game at the District Tournament which was played last Saturday, Oct. 28. Dolores went in as the no. 2 seeded team while the Blue Jays were no. 3 and Nucla no. 4.

Mancos faced Dolores, which also had a young team after losing a bunch of seniors off their team that won more than 20 games and played at State last year, in the first match of the day.

"They had beaten us in close matches three times (one during the Blue Jay Invitational and twice during the league season). The odds of them beating us a fourth time was not on their side. We knew we could keep with them. Our focus was on Dolores," she said.

The Blue Jays had a bad game to start, losing 5-15.

"It was just awful. It was worse than awful. We couldn’t do anything right. I thought this is not going to be a good tournament. We talked to them after that match," she said.

But suddenly, like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the good guy (team) showed up. Mancos could do nothing wrong and beat them 15-6.

"It was unbelievable. We jumped out to a 5-0 lead and we never looked back," she added.

The Jays held on and won the third and decisive match 15-12 after leading 12-2.

But Mr. Hyde showed up against Telluride. The girls came out flat and lost 9-15, 12-15 to a team which had two starters missing.

"I think we were so keyed up and pumped up after playing Dolores, the girls let down. They were just flat emotionally," she said.

MHS then played host Nucla and won 15-11 and 15-8. That win put the Jays right into Regionals.