The Rampart Rams huddle up during Tuesday’s match against ThunderRidge. (Jayne Simpson/CHSAANow.com)
COLORADO SPRINGS — The Rampart Rams volleyball team opened the 2015 season at home with a non-league win against the ThunderRidge Grizzlies.
The Rams (1-0 overall) swept the Grizzlies 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-23) to make a strong statement to open their fall campaign.
Both rosters welcome back a small handful of seniors this season, ThunderRidge’s Grace Perry, Kaylee West and Christina Berlinger, and Rampart’s Kathryn Gorab and Alicia Phillips. Rampart head coach Nikki Kinzer’s, complete with four sophomores and six juniors agrees that the team lost a lot of talent this past graduation, but that her girls are unfazed and ready to work.
“I was a little nervous because it was the first home game, there’s a lot of other stuff,” Kinzer said. “I knew they were capable of performing at a high level. They proved to be pretty mature.”
The Grizzlies (0-2) kept close with the Rams in the first set, but sophomore Taylor Sibert’s five kills and juniors Alicia Hill and Josie Russell added two more kills each. Even so, ThunderRidge’s junior 6-foot-1 middle blocker Blair Whiting wasn’t giving the Rams an easy win. Whiting added eight points to the Grizzlies’ score in the first set alone. Late in the set the Rams took the lead at 18-14 and never lost momentum, finishing with a final score of 25-21.
The second was competitive throughout, with only three points separating the two teams at any point. ThunderRidge junior Ell Schuldt kept the Grizzlies from falling far behind with her blocking, but Rampart maintained their lead, finishing the set 25-23.
The final set was high energy, the Rams took an early lead of 13-9 which they extended to 22-16. Sophomore Taylor Sibert again showed her young athleticism, contributing over five points in the final set. ThunderRidge’s Taylor Cordts and Christina Perlinger helped close the gap to only three points at 23-20. The Grizzles continued to fight, closing the gap more, but falling just short in the final set to end the match at 25-23.
“What’s nice about our preseason is that we play some of those pretty good Denver teams,” Kinzer said. “It’s never an easy match, so it’s nice going in this early and see how we can compare and the level that we can play at.”
Going into the regular season, both teams have a clear set of goals for themselves and for each other. ThunderRidge head coach Lindsay Selover is still “searching for that right lineup,” but is well aware of the potential that the young team has.
After tonight’s game, she is also aiming to improve serving, passing and blocking within her team moving forward this season.
Sibert had an impressive game for the Rams, adding more than 10 points to the Rams’ scoreboard. On the upcoming season, Sibert says she and the Rams are feeling really pumped. Sibert and her team have set goals to keep their team morale high, even in tough situations.
“(We can’t) get down on each other,” Sibert said. “(We have to) keep fighting, and if we are down, to just have fun.”
The team’s goals match Kinzer’s, who is hoping to change the overall culture of Rampart volleyball in the next few years. Kinzer acknowledges Rampart’s success in the sport over the past years, but even a young team hasn’t stopped the Rams’ high goal setting.
She is aiming to bring her young team into a culture of winning, but also enjoying their time playing the game.