Mancos jumped out to early leads in each set on Tuesday night at Dolores in this bitter volleyball clash.
Each squad is young with plenty of raw talent. But Mancos senior outside hitter Aimee Johnson made the big plays when her young supporting cast needed.
In the first set, Mancos led 16-11. Dolores rallied behind junior outside hitter Cydney McHenry and junior middle blocker Lexi Atkinson with seven straight points to take a 2-point lead. The rivals battled back-and-forth, until Johnsons kill gave them the lead for good at 22-21.
The Lady Bluejays proved too much Tuesday, winning a tough, three-set match (25-21, 25-23, 25-8).
Aimees great. She had a great match all the way around. The thing is, the kids need to understand that when she gets out of the front row, its up to them now. They need to hit with the same feeling, Mancos coach Ramona Shepherd said. I got a couple freshmen in there. Theyre still kind of tentative, and they think too much.
The Lady Bluejays (3-2, 2-1 2A San Juan Basin League) saw good play out of starting freshmen Jessica Willburn (libero) and Courtney Colyer (outside hitter). The two were involved in both positive and negative plays at pivotal points of the match that swung momentum. Whether it was the little libero Willburn diving for big digs, or Colyer stepping up in the middle for a block or kill, the youngsters seem to be getting the hang of Shepherds system.
Its going pretty good for us. The last three games were a little rough, but were getting more used to it, said Colyer about her and Willburns transition into the starting lineup. All of the team has made me feel welcome. Its easy to fit in.
Dolores (1-5, 1-1 2A SJBL) has some major players, too. Despite a heartbreaking five-set loss at Pagosa Springs last Friday and surrendering early leads to Mancos on Tuesday, the Lady Bears continued to fight. Dolores got big minutes from sophomore Elana Bernholtz, who provided a spark off the bench to help Atkinson clog the middle. Bernholtz spiked a kill, then notched an assisted block with Atkinson to give her team a 21-20 lead in set one.
In the second set, the Lady Bears spotted Mancos 15 of the first 18 points.
However, Dolores clawed back with 15 of the next 18 to tie the score at 18 apiece, which setoff a raucous crowd. Atkinson had a kill, an assisted block with Bernholtz, and McHenry recorded two serving aces in the run. The teams traded the next five points to a 23-23 draw. Shepherd called timeout to setup the next sequence. The Lady Bluejays executed a perfect play and Colyer spiked the kill for a 1-point lead. With everyone on their feet, the match point went to Mancos on a anticlimactic Lady Bears error.
Dolores played exactly like I thought they would. They come back, come back, come back, Shepherd said. The beginning of the year hit us hard. I knew some of my kids needed maturing. The kids tonight did well in a lot of ways.
In the final set, the Lady Bluejays kept their lead for good and cruised to a 17-point win.
The first two games, we were down quite a bit, actually, Dolores assistant coach Dave Hopcia said. In game 1 and 2, I burned quite a few timeouts to settle them down. You could see the payoff in the first two games. We had some really nice blocks. Probably our strongest blocking of the season. I felt we played really strong those first two games.
Johnson had another double-double for Mancos with 24 kills and 10 digs to go along with 13 serve receives and five serving aces. Senior setter Erica Blackburn had a game high 30 assists and four blocks. Freshman opposite hitter Andie Paschal had the most blocks with five. Willburn had an efficient 12 serve receives out of 16, and 13 digs.
The Lady Bluejays have a nonconference home match tonight against Whitehorse (Montezuma Creek, Utah) at 6 p.m.
The Lady Bears stay in the SJBL, hosting Norwood on Friday at around 6:30 p.m.
Reach Bobby Abplanalp at bobbya@cortezjournal.com.