{"id":44213,"date":"2021-10-15T18:58:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T00:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-volleyball-gains-intermountain-lead\/"},"modified":"2021-10-16T00:58:00","modified_gmt":"2021-10-16T00:58:00","slug":"bayfield-volleyball-gains-intermountain-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bayfield-volleyball-gains-intermountain-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Bayfield volleyball gains Intermountain lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bayfield
Bayfield libero Myrah Abdallah-Boehm (3) makes a dig against Pagosa Springs Tuesday night, Oct. 12, in BHS Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

All eyes on Intermountain League volleyball, particularly Bayfield\u2019s, will be trained on Pagosa Springs Saturday.<\/p>\n

And, after a three-game thriller Thursday night in BHS Gymnasium, nobody knows it better than Centauri, which now needs to avoid a loss Saturday at Pagosa Springs or Oct. 23 to Montezuma-Cortez to vie for the IML title.<\/p>\n

A victory by Caitlin Forrest\u2019s Lady Pirates, however, means BHS will clinch the crown before visiting Centauri on Oct. 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be pretty amazing,\u201d Bayfield coach Terene Foutz said after a 25-15, 25-23, 25-20 win on Senior Night. \u201cIt\u2019ll be interesting to see how Centauri does \u2026 because I feel Pagosa\u2019s well-coached and are confident at home. I mean, we\u2019ve had to squeak out some in Pagosa \u2013 like, get on the bus before they change their mind, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to not come out at the bottom, especially considering we\u2019re \u2026 the only team that\u2019s beaten Alamosa twice,\u201d Forrest had said after Tuesday\u2019s 25-19, 16-25, 16-25, 18-25 loss to Bayfield, which had just lost 25-20, 25-27, 21-25, 25-18, 5-15 to AHS roughly 24 hours earlier inside the same building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we need Centauri under our belt, and I think \u2026 tonight definitely helped us prepare for Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to approach them kind of similar to last time, when they came to us,\u201d said Centauri sophomore Kailyn Polzin, referencing the Lady Falcons\u2019 Sept. 18 sweep in La Jara. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to work harder and put the game away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to improve on a lot of things,\u201d she said, \u201cbut we\u2019re a team, Bayfield\u2019s beatable, and I think we\u2019re going to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Polzin was undoubtedly alluding to Game 2 against the Lady Wolverines (10-7, 6-1 IML), in which BHS stalled for most of its middle portion while Centauri (8-7, 3-2) raced out to a 15-8 lead with senior Marissa Johnson holding serve for seven straight points before BHS junior K\u2019Lee Stuffelbeam-Jolly came out of Foutz\u2019s second timeout in the stanza and cracked a kill.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe energy on the bench was getting kind of low, and we reflected that on-court,\u201d admitted senior Karyssa Gosney. \u201cBut as soon as we had a timeout \u2026 we picked up our momentum.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bayfield's
Bayfield's K'Lee Stuffelbeam-Jolly (5) extends towards the net while tipping a shot over two Centauri blockers Thursday night, Oct. 14, inside BHS Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Gosney ace further shrank the deficit to 17-15, and after Centauri senior Camryn Jarvies netted a tip, Bayfield pulled even via an Annie Fusco smash through Lady Falcons Polzin and Abbey Smith. Centauri remained the aggressors, retaking 19-18, 20-19 and 21-20 leads before BHS again went up on senior Emily Nelson\u2019s serve.<\/p>\n

A Nelson ace gave the home team a 23-21 lead, and senior Payton Killough followed it up with a crosscourt kill to bring up game point. But Nelson netted a vicious flat serve, and Centauri managed to scratch out another point to close within one before senior Hennessy Mortensen sailed a serve long, giving Bayfield a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

With Fusco primed for an incendiary Game 3, following an icebreaking roll shot from out of the back row \u2013 removing Smith from the service line \u2013 the Lady Wolverines\u2019 senior setter would be doing plenty of that.<\/p>\n

\"Bayfield's
Bayfield's Annie Fusco (8) helped the Lady Wolverines take control of visiting Centauri Thursday night, Oct. 14, with a third-game offensive explosion. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Fusco would crush a kill putting Bayfield up 2-0, and Stuffelbeam-Jolly followed with a tip for a quick three-point lead. Centauri clawed back to 3-2, but after consecutive Fusco crosscourt put-aways, Lady Falcon skipper Alexis Miller alertly took a timeout.<\/p>\n

Nothing changed though, and three Fusco spikes keyed a 5-1 burst that increased BHS\u2019 advantage to 9-3. Another bullet made the margin 10-4 before Centauri\u2019s floor-shining, dig-driven defense showed its mettle. Keeping the guests involved in more points than most teams visiting the venue, efforts by players such as sophomore libero Jaelyn Jackson, senior Makenzie Jarvies and Mortensen helped CHS scramble back to 14-10, and later 20-19 via a Smith ace.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team\u2019s very scrappy,\u201d Mortensen said. \u201cWe\u2019re very quick on our feet, and I think we\u2019ve learned that in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rallies felt so long; they just kept getting (the ball) up,\u201d said Fusco. \u201cI was hoping it was down, and it never was. They were really good, and I\u2019m impressed with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d been on a big winning streak so the plan was to really pull together, play as a team and just have fun,\u201d continued Mortensen. \u201cSometimes we struggle with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite being nine days rested and readied for their trip to La Plata County, the Lady Falcons\u2019 run wouldn\u2019t reach five consecutive conquests. Nelson blasted a kill stabilizing the Lady Wolverines\u2019 lead at 21-19, and Fusco would soon detonate one last bomb on match point.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re scrappy, but I think our team definitely outworked them,\u201d said Gosney. \u201cWe scouted them a lot \u2013 I think it just paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, we worked really hard on our Centauri game plan, and the kids executed it,\u201d Foutz said. \u201cBayfield was lights-out defensively; I mean, kids were picking up balls, they were reading well \u2013 they did the work and they earned this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, practice last night was a little slow,\u201d said Fusco, \u201cbut we just kept going with\u2026having a winning mentality. And I thought, mainly, I\u2019m not going to be afraid to hit anymore; I\u2019m not going to just tip and avoid a block \u2013 I\u2019m going to start swinging as hard as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re coming back ready to play and win this next Friday.\u201d Mortensen said. \u201c I\u2019m really excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be a great match,\u201d Foutz said. \u201cThey need rest now \u2026 then Monday we go hard, very hard, set the tone for the Centauri match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Standings<\/div>\n

Entering the weekend, Alamosa stands 11-6 overall, and a finalized 4-4 Intermountain mark. Pagosa Springs is 10-7, 2-5 going into the 10\/16 battle with Centauri, and Montezuma-Cortez is 10-5, 2-5 with a 4-3 games-won advantage over Pagosa Springs.<\/p>\n

\"Senior
Senior Night: Bayfield Volleyball's varsity seniors\u2013from left, Sage Killough (16), Payton Killough (14), Annie Fusco (8), Emily Nelson (9), Karyssa Gosney (7). (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

clinch league title before Centauri rematch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44214,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44213"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}