The Pagosa Springs High School Lady Pirate volleyball team picked up a pair of wins over the last week, breaking a three-game losing streak.
With the wins, the team improved to a 9-9 record on the season and sit as the No. 24 team in 3A girls’ volleyball.
The Lady Pirates’ first win came against the 2A Ignacio Bobcats on Thursday, Oct. 17, in Ignacio.
“For those who saw our game against Bayfield and then didn’t see our game at Ignacio, it’s a bummer,” coach Katie Lorenzen said. “They didn’t see a huge rebound and just an entirely different team with fantastic chemistry and energy.”
She added you could tell the team was not going to let up, even if it lost a few points.
The Lady Pirates won in three straight sets: 25-18, 25-20 and 25-17.
“We really had a great night attacking,” she said, adding it started with passing well. “How that translated offensively was pretty spectacular. Aspen [Pitcher] hit .375, and that is just awesome for an outside hitter. She was crushing the ball — 16 kills and only one error on 40 swings is really huge.”
Pitcher picked up a double-double with her 16 kills and 18 digs, the coach highlighted.
“And then Cadence [Kerns] hit .360, which is also a fantastic hitting percentage for a middle with 14 kills, five errors on 25 swings,” Lorenzen said. “She was really on fire as well.”
Kerns also had a double-double, pairing her 14 kills with 17 digs.
The Lady Pirates picked up total 49 kills in the affair, led by Pitcher’s 16 and Kerns’ 14.
Lexi Campbell and Dawson Iverson followed with seven kills each.
Lorenzen highlighted Iverson’s seven kills, as well as Hayden Peterson’s two and Kaila Limebrook’s one from their time on the right side.
Pagosa tallied eight aces, including five by Lexi Campbell.
“That’s definitely a highlight against Ignacio,” the coach said, noting the Lady Pirates had a couple really good service runs behind Campbell.
The Lady Pirates had one total block on the night, which was shared by Sophia Sottek and Kerns.
“We didn’t have as much production blocking, and part of that is that Ignacio is not as strong on their attack, so there was less to block,” Lorenzen explained.
The team had 70 digs, including the 18 from Pitcher and 17 from Kerns.
Sottek logged 43 of the team’s 46 assists, which Lorenzen noted may be a season high for Sottek.
“She did a really great job giving her hitters really good balls to take swings on,” Lorenzen said.
The team had 47 serve receptions, led by 15 from Kerns, 13 from Pitcher and 12 from Campbell.
“The overall energy of the day was different, the chemistry on the court felt right, the girls were coming together and giving to the huddle instead of pulling away like what was happening against Bayfield, so it was really nice to rebound like that,” Lorenzen said. “And we were in Ignacio’s gym during their homecoming and they had a really rowdy crowd and it was fun to play in that environment while we were also playing really well.”
On Tuesday, Pagosa picked up another win, this time over the Monte Vista Pirates.
“My one big complaint is that we did not adjust to their outside hitters hitting line,” Lorenzen explained after the game. “The scouting report I gave the girls ... Monday and Tuesday was that their outside hitters turn line most of the time and they got too many kills on us because our ... defense was reading elsewhere instead of going with what I had said was likely going to happen.”
She added the team struggled a little bit with passing and potentially with emotions from it being senior night.
“That always can affect a team differently,” she said. “But, once we actually got going and were clicking, then we did some really great things.”
The Lady Pirates fell 25-22 in the first set before coming back to win the following three 25-12, 25-23 and 25-17, respectively.
“We lost the first set, but then came back big in the second set, and it was really exciting to be able to put some swing players on the court and also for the entire team to be excited for them was fun to see,” Lorenzen said, noting later the contributions by the swing players.
The coach indicated there was excitement in playing a swing player against Ignacio, also.
That led to changes on the court.
“I pulled back Cadence to pass quite a big in serve receive, and she did really well there, and when our passing was there, then our offense did much better,” Lorenzen said, noting she told the team before hand that the middles and sides “should just have a heyday against Monte Vista because they often will only put up a single block against middles and ... outsides, and that is certainly what happened. Aspen hit .500, which is incredible. She had 13 kills, two errors and just 22 swings. That was a fantastic night for her, and she also had a double-double, contributing 19 digs. And then Cadence was next in line with 12 kills, three errors on 24 swings, hit .375 — also a fantastic hitting percentage.”
Campbell hit .238, which the coach noted is also “great” for an outside hitter.
Peterson, rebounding from being under the weather, took three swings and converted one to hit .333, the coach noted.
“She’s coming back from being under the weather and, I think, did really well out there defensively, getting a few important digs,” Lorenzen said, adding, “She was doing what needed to be done.”
The Lady Pirates logged 37 total kills against Monte Vista, led by Pitcher’s 13, Kerns’ 12 and seven from Campbell.
The team had 11 aces in the matchup, led by three each from Campbell, Honestye Sweet and Iverson.
“Honestye was in there for serving, and she served really well. It was exciting to see her confidence back there has finally matched what we see in practice and she had three aces,” Lorenzen said, noting the three aces came on eight attempts, giving her the highest ace-to-attempt ratio in the game.
The team had 10 service errors on 74 serves.
Lorenzen noted it was again not a big night for blocking for Pagosa, with the Lady Pirates logging three total blocks.
Kerns led the team with two assisted blocks, while Sottek recorded the team’s only solo block.
The coach also highlighted the play of Sottek, who also had 28 of the team’s 33 assists.
“Sophia set a really good game, distributing the ball, making ... the ball better when the pass wasn’t always perfect and making sure all the hitters were involved and making some good choices.
The Lady Pirates had 56 digs in the game, led by Pitcher’s 19.
Pitcher also led in serve receptions with 24 of the team’s 55, followed by Kerns with 16.
The game also served as the final home game for the team’s four seniors — Sottek, Pitcher, Kerns and Sweet.
“It’s senior night. It was nice to go out with the win and to see all four seniors do really well on the court,” Lorenzen said.
Up next, the Lady Pirates will close out league play for the season on Oct. 24 against the Centauri Falcons.
The game is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. in La Jara.
The Lady Pirates previously fell to the Falcons 3-0 on Sept. 21.
The Falcons are currently third in the Intermountain League with a league mark of 3-4 and overall record of 7-15.
Pagosa sits fourth in the league with a league record of 2-5.
randi@pagosasun.com
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