(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
MANITOU SPRINGS – The Manitou Springs volleyball team has suffered some tough early season losses. In tournament play this year, the Mustangs dropped a match to Resurrection Christian and to archrival St. Mary’s. They later traveled to Platte Valley where they lost a heartbreaker to the Broncos, a match in which they led two sets to none.
That’s why Tuesday’s 3-2 (25-21, 25-19, 14-25, 22-25) win over No. 3 Colorado Springs Christian was so important. The fifth-ranked Mustangs led after two sets and the Lions were able to come back and push it to five before the Mustangs got the win in a key Class 3A match.
“The thought crossed my mind, thinking, ‘Here we go again,'” Manitou coach Jane Squires said. “I didn’t say anything to them, but I wanted to tell them that we couldn’t let that happen again.”
The Mustangs (8-3 overall, 4-0 3A Tri-Peaks League) had some early trouble getting their offensive weapons involved. Outside hitter Katie McKiel was able to slam home a couple of kills, but the Lions (9-1) did a great job of digging and blocking some of her attempts.
Brooke Garretson stepped up big with McKiel drawing the attention of the CSCS (9-1, 5-1) defense and was able to score two key points for the Mustangs to get them a 25-21 victory in the first set.
“Last year, all we had was Katie, but now we have more options and we all know how to hit better,” Garretson said. “We can use each other more and (setter) Gala (Jensen) trusts us all more as hitters.”
Each team carried a surge of energy over from the first set and found themselves locked in a back and forth battle. Both McKiel and Lions hitter Abby Skrastins saw great defensive efforts from the other side of the net.
But with the set tied at 10-10 in the second set, McKiel and company took over. Highlighted by a couple of McKiel kills, the Mustangs jumped out to a 9-0 run to take a 19-10 lead.
The Lions tried to fight their back but McKiel slammed home two kills and it was Garretson who once against finished it off at 25-19.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
Now in desperation mode, the Lions were forced to up their game. Down 7-5, they outscored the Mustangs 10-3, forcing Squires to burn a timeout. She couldn’t settle down her players and led by Skrastins, the Lions were able to take the third set 25-14 to extend the match.
“I really felt like they started to click as a team toward the last few sets,” Lions coach Lori Currier said. “It was a good building block for us and it’s a good place for us to build from here.”
CSCS was able to keep their energy level up going into the fourth set to take a quick 7-4 lead. The Mustangs seemed out of sorts on offense and had been since early in the second set.
“We tried to run some different things and mix things up,” Squires said. “We need to do a little bit better on our decision making there.”
The Mustangs eventually pulled even and a kill from Garretson put the Mustangs in the lead 10-9. The seesaw battle continued through the fourth set and the Lions came away with the 25-22 win to push the match to a fifth and final set.
The Mustangs started off hot, looking more like they had in the first two sets. They were successfully blocking the Lions attack and placing their shots in just the right place. They seized momentum with a 4-0 run that included a McKiel kill and two points off blocks to take a 9-5 lead.
But like the Lions had for the entire match, they battled their way back to tie up before the Mustangs were able to get to match point at 14-10. CSCS took the next four points to extend the final set.
The Mustangs caught their biggest break of the night as a Skrastins kill attempt went into the net, giving Manitou a crucial league win and huge boost considering the struggles they have had closing matches out.
“We knew what it felt like,” Garretson said. “I think we wanted it more this game than we did against Platte Valley so we pushed a lot harder.”