The Pagosa Springs High School Lady Pirate volleyball team will head into this week’s regional action as the No. 34 seed.
The Lady Pirates will head to Colorado Springs for regionals, where they’ll take on No. 3 Village and No. 22 Banning Lewis.
“We’ll be looking to go play our hearts out and play against higher-ranked teams this weekend,” coach Katie Lorenzen said.
Lorenzen noted Village, which owns a 20-3 record, has a middle who Lorenzen has heard is committed to Stanford.
The Lady Pirates will take on Village at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 9.
Banning Lewis, also from Colorado Springs, is 15-8 on the season.
The Lady Pirates will take on Banning Lewis following their match with Village, with Village and Banning Lewis facing each other after that.
Matches are set to be held at Mitchell High School.
The winners of each of the 12 regions will advance to the state bracket.
The Lady Pirates earned the 34th seed after finishing the regular season with a 10-13 record, which included the team going 1-3 at last week’s Coal Ridge Tournament.
“First we played Glenwood Springs at the Coal Ridge Tournament, and we played them the first match of the season,” Lorenzen explained. “And I think we looked a whole lot better this time, but they also improved as well.”
The Lady Pirates fell 25-9 to the Demons in the first set.
“Our first set score wasn’t so pretty, but we played them really tight in the second set and barely lost, 24-26,” the coach added.
Lorenzen noted the Lady Pirates weren’t able to get into an offensive rhythm against the Demons.
“They were an incredibly tough-serving team, so we really didn’t get that many swings ... in the match, just 35 swings in two sets because they were serving so tough. And so we were struggling to get into any sort of offensive rhythm. Even if we didn’t get aced, we weren’t always able to take a real swing on the ball and often just had to send free balls over.”
But Lorenzen added she was pleased the Lady Pirates “stuck together as a team and didn’t give up on each other or the game or any of that and were still fighting the entire time.”
Lorenzen indicated the Lady Pirates were aced by the Demons a number of times, but also struggled to pass.
“We passed a 1.5. We want to aim for above a 2.0, and I think a 1.5 is the lowest that we’ve passed this season,” she stated.
Pagosa picked up 13 kills against the Demons, led by four each from Aspen Pitcher and Lexi Campbell.
The Lady Pirates had four aces, with Sophia Sottek leading the team with two.
The team also had four total blocks, with Cadence Kerns, Kaila Limebrook and Dawson Iverson each putting up two assisted blocks.
Pagosa had 16 digs in the matchup, led by Pitcher’s five and Campbell’s four.
Sottek had all 10 of Pagosa’s assists in the matchup.
Pitcher logged 13 of the team’s 33 serve receptions.
“But, overall, still I think we played a lot better than the last time we played them and the girls stuck together,” Lorenzen said.
Next up, the Lady Pirates took on the Coal Ridge Titans, with Lorenzen noting Pagosa defeated the Titans at the beginning of the season.
“This time they etched out the win,” she said.
The Lady Pirates won the first set 27-25 before falling 29-27 in the second set.
“So, those two were extra points and just a battle back and forth,” Lorenzen relayed.
The Titans won the final set 15-9.
“We really struggled in the third set with errors at critical points that kind of just hurt our momentum, but had played a really tight match,” the coach said. “And, again, even though we lost, the girls stuck together and fought the entire time, so that was really good to watch.”
Lorenzen highlighted that Kerns led the team in kills with12 of the team’s 34 and hit .321.
Pitcher was next with nine kills, with Lorenzen noting, “She was struggling a bit against a solid block and having to take out-of-system swings, but she’s out there always taking the most swings and receiving the ball the most in serve receive, so she carries a really big load and does it very gracefully.”
She added Pitcher “by far led in digs with 16, so that was pretty huge.”
The Lady Pirates had 43 total digs.
Tatiana Monterroso logged the team’s only ace in the matchup.
Pagosa had five total blocks, with Pitcher logging three assisted blocks. Campbell had one solo block and one assisted block, while Kerns and Iverson each had two assisted blocks.
Sottek tallied 29 of the team’s 32 assists.
Pitcher led in serve receptions with 19 of the team’s 52 serve receptions.
On Saturday morning, the Lady Pirates took on the Delta Panthers.
The Lady Pirates fell in two sets, 25-16 and 25-23.
Lorenzen noted the Lady Pirates traveled to Delta for regionals last year and lost to the Panthers.
The Panthers then moved up to the 4A division this year, she noted, and boasts “a really good lefty player.”
She added that it’s hard to mimic a lefty in practice without having one.
“And she was really good and got some good kills, but we also, I think, did a really good job of ... putting up a solid block and making her work for those kills,” Lorezen said.
Lorenzen added the Lady Pirates also hit “really well” with a .230 and passed well at a 2.0.
Pitcher led with 12 of the team’s 25 kills.
Pagosa had two aces in the matchup — one by Campbell and the other by Hayden Peterson.
The team had one total block, which was split between Campbell and Kerns.
Pagosa had 24 digs, led by five from Pitcher.
“Our digs were kinda low,” Lorenzen said. “They were scoring on their swings a lot, but we were hangin’ in there and putting up a good fight.”
Sottek had all 24 of the team’s assists.
Pagosa had 42 serve receptions, led by 17 from Pitcher.
The Lady Pirates’ final game of the tournament was against the Rifle Bears.
“Our crossover game we were matched up with Rifle, and we were just kinda off for a while and lost the first set 23-25 and then kicked it into gear,” Lorenzen explained. “I told the girls the season might really rely on ... that game alone, make it or break it, whether we stay in the regional rankings or not. There was a turnaround and we won 25-19 and then pushed it to a third set and won 15-8.”
The Lady Pirates had 26 kills in the affair, led by six each from Pitcher and Campbell.
Lorenzen also highlighted, “Malorie Morton got in and did really well with smart swings. She hit .750 — three kills on four swings with no errors — and was also getting some really good block touches.”
Pagosa had five aces, led by two from Charity Domingo.
The Lady Pirates notched three total blocks, including three assisted blocks by Kerns, two by Limebrook and one by Pitcher.
The team had 43 digs, led by Pitcher’s 11.
Sottek tallied all of the team’s 23 assists, and Pitcher logged 19 of the team’s 44 serve receptions.
Lorenzen also noted a number of positives about the team’s athletes over the tournament as a whole.
Sottek, she stated, set really well over the weekend, “dispersing the ball, mixing it up and putting up really hittable balls for all of our players.”
Pitcher, Lorenzen stated, received the ball the most and usually took the most swings — a load she noted Pitcher carries all the time.
Lorenzen added Pitcher “struggled a little bit with passing and against big blocks that were [keying] in on her, but she still always had the support of her team and ... when her teammates then were taking swings on the ball and scoring, she was right there to celebrate them as much as possible, which is awesome to see when someone struggles a little bit themselves. She’s a tremendous teammate in that way.”
Campbell, according to the coach, passed really well, “defensively made some good moves and had some good serving runs.”
Of Domingo, Lorenzen highlighted, “We had Charity playing on the right side for defense and ... we were all really pleased with her defense on the right side. I think she made some good reads and ... dug very settable balls.”
Kerns, Lorenzen pointed out, did really well blocking, “working her butt off to get everywhere and got a number of blocks, plus slowed down the ball a whole lot. That was definitely her strength this weekend.”
Monterroso, the coach noted, “came in and was playing left back as a libero for us and did really well, held her own. I think she passes super well, and we really needed that at times. And then she served not every game, but for some of the games we had her serving and she has great contact with great float, so it was nice to have her in there doing that.”
Honestye Sweet, Lorenzen highlighted, came in and had some really tough serves also and had a good serving run.
Peterson played some outside and some right side on the weekend and was also getting some touches on the block, Lorenzen relayed.
Limebrook, Lorenzen said, “took some really strong swings this weekend. ... It looked like her confidence in her swing was the best that it’s been this season.”
Lorenzen also highlighted Iverson’s service runs.
“Dawson had some really great service runs. ... She had 15 serve attempts against Coal Ridge. And even though she wasn’t getting aces in that match, they were tough serves and she was keeping Coal Ridge out of system and that’s why we were scoring. So, she did really well there and overall for the weekend was taking smart swings and low error on her swings.”
randi@pagosasun.com
