In the San Juan Basin League, you take a win whenever and wherever you can.
And after inconsistent play by both Dove Creek and home-team Ignacio, the Lady Bulldogs were more than happy to depart Ignacio Thursday night with a 3-1 victory (25-16, 27-25, 14-25, 25-19).
“We had lost the last two, so this was to get our momentum back,” said Dove Creek head coach Veronica Spigner. “Ignacio’s a tough team, they’re quite a bit bigger than us, so it was a big win. It was very important.”
Entering the league opener hungry after losing in four sets at De Beque and in five at Monument Valley, Utah, Dove Creek quickly gained a 2-1 lead on Ignacio and allowed Ignacio to get no closer than a score of 12-10 before going on a decisive 9-0 run – seven points via Ignacio errors – and winning 25-16 when Ignacio sophomore Morgan Herrera served out of bounds.
Dove Creek senior LaRissa Randolph began Game 2 with an ace, but netted her follow-up to set the tone. All told, the Lady Bulldogs, 3-2 overall and 1-0 in league play, took or retook the lead 11 times, the last seven all by failed Ignacio attacks, serves, passes or net violations.
No point, however, was more important than the last. Ignacio, 0-2 overall and 0-1 in league play, had swiped a 25-24 lead via a Herrera kill, but a lift called against Misty Egger-Morris retied the score. A botched pass then put the guests on game point, and Dove Creek junior Breea Meyer zipped over a serve that Ignacio couldn’t handle, putting the Bulldogs up 2-0 in the match.
Ignacio recovered to take Game 3 after taking the lead for good at 10-9 and increasing it to a winning 25-14 via an impressive Makayla Howell kill off a Shoshone Thompson quick set. But Dove Creek wasted little time in beginning Game 4 with Meyer stuffing down a wayward pass and then smacking a kill for a 2-0 lead.
Ignacio managed to retake a 5-4 lead on a strong Egger-Morris serve, but after Herrera hit long, Dove Creek junior Sierra Ayers dropped in an ace. Randolph followed with a scoring tip, sophomore Cassie Gatlin downed a cross-court kill, and senior Faith Johnson scored an overpass kill through the middle, making for a vital 9-5 lead.
Dove Creek led 11-5 before Ignacio began a spirited comeback that would bring them as close as 17-14 before Dove Creek again pulled away, helped by a key Ayers block on a Herrera cross-court spike, and a Gatlin kill immediately after. After a timeout taken by skipper Thad Cano, Ignacio scrapped back to 23-19 before a Johnson overpass kill put the Lady Bulldogs on match point.
Trying to create a spark for the home team, Ignacio Caitlyn Mulcahy unluckily sent her last swing long.
“Something we’ve been working a lot on in practice is trying to keep that positivity, that intensity,” said Spigner. “We do struggle if we ever fall down mentally ... we struggle to get back up. So I was proud of them for doing that tonight.”
Individual statistics for Dove Creek had not yet been totaled as of Friday. Howell led Ignacio with a near triple-double of 11 kills, 10 digs and six total blocks. Thompson logged 23 assists as Herrera also contributed six kills. But despite firing three of the Ignacio’s 13 aces, Thompson joined her teammates in faltering overall from the line, and Ignacio finished with a crippling 27 service errors.
“There was a lot of missed serves on both sides, so that was a struggle,” Spigner said, while trying to single out a standout or two from the stop-and-start battle. “Cassie ... was very smart and was one of the hitters who was consistently actually hitting the ball, so that was good. And LaRissa too – she’s a constant setter.”
Up next, Dove Creek will travel to Shiprock Northwest on Tuesday, Sept. 12, then resume league play by hosting Ouray on the Sept. 15 and Norwood on Nov. 16.
“It’s ... a big week,” Spigner said. “We’re just going to focus on staying positive, our serves, and then just ... being aggressive on the attack.”
Still seeking momentum from a home-heavy start to their schedule, Ignacio was to host Norwood and Telluride on Saturday, Sept. 9, before welcoming Dolores on Sept. 14 and both Ouray and Ridgway on Sept. 16.
