The Pagosa Springs High School Lady Pirate volleyball team went 1-2 over the last week, moving the team to a 5-5 record on the season and 1-2 record in league play.
The Lady Pirates narrowly lost to the Del Norte Tigers in five sets on Thursday, Sept. 12, in Del Norte.
The Lady Pirates won the first set 25-23, lost the second 25-22, won the third 25-23, lost the fourth 25-22 and lost the fifth 15-13.
“Overall, it felt like Del Norte just had a little more collective fight than we had as a group,” coach Katie Lorenzen said. “We had lots of good things that were happening, but jut not quite that grit to finish things off when we needed it.”
Lorenzen noted some senior feedback in the locker room was that there wasn’t enough talk on the court or enough urgency.
“So, we know those are things to work on,” she said. “One place that we did not adjust well was when Del Norte’s middle and right side tipped on us again and again and again right over the block and we weren’t making that adjustment until way later in the game, but that should’ve happened a little bit sooner.”
The coach also noted the team had too many service errors with 15.
“That right there could have changed the game ... the couple sets that we lost by just a few points would have been different if we didn’t have 15 service errors for the match,” Lorenzen said.
The coach also noted the Lady Pirates did several things well.
“We did really well at the net with blocks,” she said, noting she thinks the refs were inaccurately calling nets when Del Norte’s attack would hit the net and push the net into the Lady Pirates. “So, we had a ton of net calls that I don’t think were accurate, but I told the girls that we can’t control that and we have to just move on and not be questioning the refs.”
That, she added, might have taken some wind out of the team’s sails, but the team was getting a lot of blocks and took Del Norte’s top hitter out of the game for a while through blocks and digs.
The Lady Pirates tallied 13 total blocks in the matchup, which included three solo blocks and 20 block assists.
Cadence Kerns led with seven block assists, with Aspen Pitcher following with five, including one solo and four assists. Lexi Campbell followed with four, including one solo and three assists. Dawson Iverson recorded the team’s other solo block.
Pitcher, Kerns and Campbell each logged double-doubles in the matchup.
“Nice to see the double-double from three of our players,” Lorenzen said, adding, “Cadence was really great at the net with seven block assists. Aspen was crushing it with almost hitting 1.000 early on. Every swing was a kill. But, by the end of the match, she hit .159 and she was taking a ton of swings and 17 kills. And, for Cadence to have 37 swings as a middle is really impressive. You don’t usually find your middle that much, but she was doing really well, as well.”
Pitcher’s double-double came in the form of 17 kills and 24 digs.
Kerns had 10 kills and 11 digs.
Campbell had 12 kills and 12 digs.
The team had 48 total kills and 67 total digs.
Charity Domingo also had double-digit digs with 12.
Sophia Sottek had 30 of the team’s 41 assists.
The team had four aces — two from Campbell and one each from Pitcher and Kerns.
Campbell led the team in serving points with 21 of the team’s 83, followed by Sottek with 17, and 15 each from Pitcher and Kaila Limebrook.
On Saturday, Sept. 14, the Lady Pirates hosted the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers for a league matchup.
Lorenzen indicated the Lady Pirates weren’t sure what they were up against with Montezuma-Cortez.
“I couldn’t find any film on them, but they saw that they had recently beat Bayfield and Bayfield beat Centauri, so I didn’t know what we were gonna come up against,” she said. “So, just looking at the stats, we knew who their big hitter was and the girls did really well making an adjustment against their outside hitter who leads the team, has about double the kills as anyone else on their team. She got a couple really good kills early on and then our blockers made some adjustments and we got some blocks as well as a lot of just great touches that we were able to play, so I think that made a big difference for us.”
The Lady Pirates dropped the first set 25-22 before rebounding to win the next three sets 25-14, 25-22 and 25-16.
Pitcher, Kerns and Sottek notched double-doubles.
Pitcher had 11 kills and 20 digs.
Kerns had 14 kills and 20 digs.
“Cadence took the most amount of swings of anyone, so, again, really impressive for a middle to be getting that many swings, and Cadence also led the team in hitting percentage with .226 as well as blocks with six block assists,” Lorenzen highlighted.
Sottek had 12 digs and 30 assists.
The coach added Sottek did a great job running the team’s offense.
“She had a very steady presence and did a great job keeping the team on track and delivering the ball to her hitters,” the coach highlighted. “She also scored the final point of the game with a smart play, sending the ball over on the first contact deep to the end line and Cortez wasn’t expecting it at all so it was a kill.”
Sottek led the team with 21 serving points, followed by Kerns with 17 of the team’s 67.
The team had 43 kills in the affair and 77 total digs.
Lorenzen added the team showed improvement in serving with nine aces and only six errors.
Pitcher, Domingo and Kerns each had two aces.
The team hit .158 against the Panthers, which Lorenzen indicated was an improvement over the .089 hitting percentage against the Tigers.
“So, the girls did really well with coming out strong in the second set after we lost the first set and we won big, and that gave us some momentum,” Lorenzen said. “Kaila took some good swings on the right side and was getting some good block touches, and Hayden [Peterson] had great defense in the back row that was really nice to see. And, Charity has done a lot of libero in different positions, not just playing left back but some right back, and we’ve been really impressed with her ability to adjust there and just being more vocal and getting more comfortable in her position, being assertive. So, that was all really good, and it was nice to get the win at home.”
Then, on Tuesday, the team traveled to Bayfield for a league matchup against the Wolverines.
The Lady Pirates fell in three sets: 25-21, 25-10 and 25-19.
“Bayfield showed up to play and they lost recently to Cortez, so I think they were fired up and ready to defend their home court,” Lorenzen said.
The coach added it is Bayfield’s homecoming week.
“They were on the offensive and really going after it without any fear and really going after it aggressively, so kudos to them for that,” she said. “On our side, I really felt like we just wouldn’t grab the momentum and go when it was within grasp, and we’re figuring out why that is.”
She added some of the discussion centered on the energy on the court.
“So, that’s an energy on the court that we are looking to change. Who’s gonna pick everyone up, hold everyone in the huddle longer and demand more of each person on the court? ... We have a lot of great pieces that can come together, we just need the glue that will hold us together.”
Lorenzen added Bayfield was also “serving tough,” but Sottek did a great job holding the offense, consistently giving her hitters very hittable balls and talking to her hitters.
“I’d say she did a fantastic job,” she said.
Pitcher, the coach highlight, was taking really big swings and got a number of kills early, and the team had a number of tough serves and a few service aces.
The coach noted the girls were also too focused on calls they didn’t agree with.
Lorenzen noted the night wasn’t a great showing for Lady Pirate volleyball, but “we saw what we needed to work on and we look forward to seeing Bayfield the next time.”
Stats from the matchup were not available by press time Tuesday.
The Lady Pirates will host half of their remaining home games over the next week.
The Lady Pirates will host the Centauri Falcons Saturday at 1 p.m.
The Falcons are 3-6 overall and 0-1 in league play.
On Tuesday, Sept. 24, the team will host the Kirtland Central Broncos from New Mexico at 6 p.m.
The Broncos are 3-4 on the season.
