{"id":44871,"date":"2021-09-02T16:46:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T22:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/play-in-mancos-preps-cats-for-m-chs\/"},"modified":"2021-09-02T22:46:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T22:46:00","slug":"play-in-mancos-preps-cats-for-m-chs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/play-in-mancos-preps-cats-for-m-chs\/","title":{"rendered":"Play in Mancos preps \u2019Cats for M-CHS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Ignacio's
Ignacio's Trinity Strohl attempts a spike against Mancos' Haylie Higgins (12) during Tuesday night's match inside MHS Gymnasium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Having pounded a kill off the block of Mancos\u2019 Haylie Higgins to mercifully conclude a hot-and-cold first game Tuesday night, one could see Alexis Pontine was at last truly ready to help visiting Ignacio take command.<\/p>\n

And after immediately downing a back-row kill to knock Jay Jessie Wallace off serve starting Game 2, Pontine went back to the service line, one of her favorite places on a volleyball court from which to wreak havoc.<\/p>\n

Seemingly looking ahead to Thursday night\u2019s home opener inside IHS Gymnasium, Pontine more or less crushed MHS\u2019 hopes with an array of varying aces. First, a perfectly placed dart to the deep corner, followed by a gem so short it barely crept over the net and well out of libero Shelby Jabour\u2019s reach.<\/p>\n

Third was an unplayable offering forced through the top of the net, catching all blue-and-white-clad players practically flat-footed, and fourth a rocket into the middle of Mancos\u2019 back row, which Jasmine Martinez couldn\u2019t field.<\/p>\n

\u201cLexi Pontine, she\u2019s a hammer,\u201d said Mancos head coach Brianna Yeomans-Allison, taking over this fall from spring skipper Staci Greenlee. \u201cI really enjoy watching her play; she\u2019s going to bring it everywhere she\u2019s coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I played club with some of those girls, know strengths and weaknesses,\u201d Pontine said. \u201cAnd I was looking at spots on the court that were open, and how their people were looking tonight \u2013 and just decided based on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think whenever we have a good, strong run their energy stays high,\u201d noted Ignacio head coach Shasta Pontine, who took charge this season from Melanie Seibel. \u201cThat\u2019s what really helps drive them.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Mancos finally managed to pass a Pontine serve, junior Audrey Stockton netted an attack \u2013 increasing the guests\u2019 lead to 11-3 before Pontine narrowly missed another deep-corner attempt. The damage was done, however; the Jays got no closer than 14-9, before Shasta Pontine called timeout and junior Grace Gonzales responded with a cross-court kill.<\/p>\n

IHS\u2019 lead would then regrow to 19-9 before the Volleycats decelerated ever so slightly down the stretch. Junior Trinity Strohl would ace Martinez to bring up game point, 24-15, before Wallace managed to out-joust Gonzales. Again, Coach Pontine was quick to quash any resulting Mancos momentum with a timeout, and the \u2019Cats went up 2-0 in the match when Jabour netted her serve after the short stoppage.<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio's
Ignacio's Grace Gonzales (10) skies for an uncontested spike during Tuesday night's match at Mancos.(Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe missed more serves than I wanted tonight, you know, and that really hurts us when we\u2019re giving away points,\u201d Yeomans-Allison said. \u201cThe first (game) we were in there, and we were playing. It seems when we start making errors \u2026 it just snowballs on us, and then we have a hard time digging back out. And I think that\u2019s where we need leadership to come into play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzales began Game 3 on serve, and would book the first point with a back-row kill. Alexis Pontine followed with a kill from the front, and before the home team knew what hit them, the Jays were down 7-1 after a Strohl kill off Higgins. Replacing the graduated Marisa Carmenoros at setter, sophomore Kacey Brown would show her own serving skill, with consecutive unplayable deliveries which swelled IHS\u2019 lead to 11-3.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a new setter as probably a lot of people know,\u201d she said afterward, \u201cbut my teammates and my coaches \u2013 and my family \u2013 have really been helping me out. And coach \u2026 usually she\u2019ll tell us where to serve, but if they change then we\u2019ll usually find a hole ourselves and go there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos would fight back to as close as 12-7, before gifting Ignacio a point via an errant free ball, then surrendering two more via a Strohl ace and a kill by senior Lexy Young. Gonzales then tipped a point off Stockton, and after Strohl dropped in a very short ace just over the strings, Yeomans-Allison took a timeout despite the writing being very much on the wall.<\/p>\n

With MHS trailing 23-10, the \u2019Cats earned the serve at match point when the Jays committed a rotation infraction on IHS sophomore Solymar Cosio\u2019s serve, which visibly looked to land for an ace anyway. Cosio\u2019s next serve was successfully handled, but Mancos sophomore kill machine Teya Yeomans\u2019 swing sailed long \u2013 finalizing a 25-22, 25-16, 25-10 Ignacio sweep coming on the heels of their season-opening 27-25, 25-10, 25-12 romp last Friday at rebuilding Ridgway.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team \u2026 we\u2019re really getting along and we\u2019re connecting well; I think the energy makes all the difference,\u201d said Alexis Pontine. \u201cWe\u2019re just really excited for the season; I think that\u2019s the main difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now 2-0 overall and 2-0 in the 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League, the \u2019Cats will next face their toughest foe yet when defending 3A Intermountain League champs Montezuma-Cortez \u2013 state tournament semifinalists in the spring \u2013 visits Thursday.<\/p>\n

And despite having graduated a truckload of talent \u2013 including middle\/outside hitters Myka Glover and Kylie Lake, middle\/opposite Devon McHenry, libero Amber Wood and setter\/defensive specialist Leigha Comisky \u2013 the Panthers will arrive standing 3-0 overall with senior OH\/MH Avery Wright their well-known primary weapon.<\/p>\n

Setter Dez Boeckmann also returns for her senior year, as does OH\/DS Sariah Robinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see how that goes; it\u2019s going to be good,\u201d Pontine said. \u201cI\u2019m really excited for that (match).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a good chance,\u201d stated Brown. \u201cCortez is tough, but we\u2019re tough too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"New
New Ignacio Volleyball head coach Shasta Pontine, right, and libero Laci Brunson (white jersey) appear to play a game of \u201cmirror\u201d while observing Mancos' warmups Tuesday night inside MHS Gymnasium. Pontine's Volleycats would win 3-0, improving their match record to 2-0 overall entering Thursday night's home opener. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Having last led Ignacio at 8-7 in Game 1 (before rallying as close as 24-22) Tuesday night, Mancos (0-2, 0-1 SJBL) will next see action Tuesday, in Durango against 4A DHS\u2019 JV, then return to host 1A SJBLers Norwood on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re young, still trying to condition,\u201d said Yeomans-Allison, \u201cbut I think we have a lot of potential. It\u2019s just a matter of getting reps, getting a lot of playing time together and knowing when to dig deep \u2026 turn to that player that turns the team around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrusting each other, establishing that team unity \u2026 I think once we get there they\u2019ll be a team to be reckoned with.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Ignacio suffered its first loss to Cortez, 3-1. IHS won game 3, 25-17, but MCHS won the rest 25-17, 25-16 and 25-20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ignacio volleyball off to 2-0 start<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,846,345],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio-high-school","tag-volleyball"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44871","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=44871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44871"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}