After a flat start, the Montezuma-Cortez volleyball team dropped its opening set of the season against Ignacio on Tuesday.
“We came out a little timid,” said head coach Dave Robinson. “I think it was those first-game jitters. We had seven or eight missed serves in that first game. And I hate to say it, but you can’t win games when you make that many errors.”
But following the initial 25-17 loss, the Lady Panthers rallied to take the second set 25-20 to even the two teams at one game apiece.
“I think the girls got those jitters out,” Robinson said of his team’s play in the subsequent sets. “But we were playing against a good squad. Ignacio is definitely a well-coached and pretty fine-oiled machine.”
The Bobcats jumped back on top with a 28-26 win in the third set. But trailing 2-1, M-CHS pulled together to win two consecutive sets (25-17 and 15-8) to take the match three games to two.
Robinson said that the Panthers made adjustments after their loss in the third set, and that the play of Ashley Wood, Michele Coyote and Tyra Pinnecoose on the back row really solidified the squad.
“We talked to them about winning the smaller parts of the game,” explained Robinson. “Let’s beat them to five points, let beat them to ten points and try to break the game down.”
M-CHS travels to the Glenwood Tournament this weekend, where its first three games will be against Steamboat Springs, Grand Valley and Rifle.
“We’ve got two practices to get ready for this and get ourselves organized,” said Robinson. “We just want to minimize mistakes on our part and make teams beat us.”