Hosting the Alamosa Mean Moose and Pagosa Springs Pirates for a tri meet on Saturday, the Montezuma-Cortez Lady Panthers opened with a nail-biting victory over the Mean Moose: 25-17, 22-25, 12-25, 26-24, 16-14.
“It was really exciting,” said head coach Dave Robinson. “And at the time they were 20th ranked in our RPI rating system, so we felt like that was a really big win. To go five with them was a showing of guts for our girls, they did a really great job.”
After toppling the Mean Moose, the Panthers took on Pagosa Springs, which was 18th in the RPI standings.
M-CHS fell behind 0-4 early, but a kill by Skyler Robinson sparked a run by the Panthers and they would eventually build a 20-14 lead.
However, the Pirates bounced back, and Faith Ahlhardt recorded consecutive aces down the stretch as Pagosa came from behind to take game one in extra points, 29-27.
“It’s a tough go when you feel like you’re up on somebody and then they come back and win it,” said Robinson. “But they’re a great team. I don’t feel like we were out of many of the games, we just let them get on certain runs that just killed us.”
Pagosa started game two on a 6-0 run before M-CHS got on the board. And while the Panthers kept it exciting, the Pirates pulled away to win 25-16 and then finished the sweep with a 25-19 victory in game three.
Robinson finished with four aces on the day for M-CHS, Aryelle Wright had two and Danielle McDonald and Rylee Lindsley each added one.
The Panthers (7-13, 3-6 Intermountain League) travel to Durango on Tuesday to take on the Demons before finishing the season at home against Monte Vista on Friday.