IGNACIO—Stunning the home team by acing three different players with as many serves late in Game 1 Saturday morning, Telluride’s Sierra Shambaugh certainly had 2A/1A San Juan Basin League nemesis Ignacio already wobbling and on the proverbial ropes.

“Definitely a momentum-changer,” said the junior outside hitter.  “It picked everyone up and we played really well from it.  We all fed off each other’s emotions, and that’s what really brought us the win.”

But after coasting to a 25-18 win beginning the best-of-5, the Lady Miners, sans starting setter Sydney Evans (ACT exam) and minus starting middle Jessica Pack (overseas), still had to dig deeper last Saturday to clinch a fifth victory in six tries to date in 2017.

            Visiting IHS Gymnasium a week removed from an outstanding 4-for-4 showing at the two-day Rangely Invitational—including a win over the hosting Lady Panthers, RHS’ first loss this fall—THS did precisely that.

            With the Volleycats properly awakened, Telluride quickly fell behind 5-0 in Game 2 and trailed 7-1 before rallying to tie at 8-8 with an ace serve by junior Mackenna Stenhammer—one player head coach Rhea dePagter relied upon to fill one of the aforementioned lineup vacancies.

            THS then went ahead 9-8 on an IHS net violation, but the Lady Miners wouldn’t again lead until when it mattered most.  Down 22-18 after an unplayable serve by Ignacio senior Caitlyn Mulcahy, Telluride scrapped back to tie at 22 and again at 23 with a kill by backup setter Baylee Williams.

IHS sophomore Morgan Herrera then sent her next two attacks long, gifting the guests a 25-23 win and vital 2-0 lead in the match.

“We’ve always been pretty intimidated by them,” Shambaugh said.  “And we just came in with a lot of confidence, were really together on every point.  It really helped.”

Proud to imitate one of the Volleycats’ most intimidating aspects, the Lady Miners rode two lengthy stays on serve to bring about an early end to the contest.  Sophomore Danika Petit held serve until the score was 8-0, with Shambaugh smashing a kill and forcing Thad Cano to call a needed timeout.

But though his side would reel off the next six points, pressing THS into the same mistakes which had just cost the ’Cats as many, dePagter alertly took a timeout hoping to rattle Ignacio’s dangerous Shoshone Thompson off the service line.

The ploy worked; Williams responded with a kill, and IHS would get no closer than 14-10 before Lady Miner junior Anna Krownapple helped string together eight unanswered points on serve.

“I definitely think that their passing started to break down towards the end.  So I would serve the girls who I noticed weren’t doing well passing to begin with…breaking them down,” she explained.  “And I’d shift a little bit so they’d think it wouldn’t come, and then I would go back to them.  It’s a mind game!”

Up 22-10, she served long, but IHS—then the top ‘Others Receiving Votes’ team in the CHSAANow.com Class 2A rankings—was too far gone to mount a desperate comeback and sophomore Makayla Howell served long at 24-12 with Telluride sitting on match point.

“We always try to focus on being aggressive and not careless,” Shambaugh said.  “So that really helped today; we were just playing aggressive and did really well.”

Up next, the Lady Miners (5-1, 1-1 SJBL) will welcome Nucla—which ventured to Sterling on Saturday for the Northeastern Junior College Tournament—on Tuesday for a listed 5:15 p.m. start.

At NJC, the Lady Mustangs were placed in a starting pool with 1A Peetz, 2A Holyoke and defending 2A State Champion Greeley Dayspring Christian, but other than a 3-0 loss to the vaunted Lady Eagles no results had been reported as of Monday morning.

But even with outcomes unknown, Telluride will approach NHS as intensely as Ignacio (1-3, 1-2).

“Monday we’re going to be out there really hustling,” Shambaugh said, regarding the Lady Miners’ lone practice prior to the match.  “Just picking up the energy and playing like how we did.”

After hosting Nucla, THS’ next scheduled outing is a Sept. 16 trip to Mancos.