CASTLE ROCK — A little boy sat at the back of Castle View’s visiting bleachers playing a video game during a nail-biting volleyball match between the Sabercats and Rock Canyon. But he would set down his game to watch in awe any time Jaguars outside hitter Keeley Davis leapt, swung and sent the ball whizzing over the net and straight into the Sabercats’ floor.
Rock Canyon and Castle View volleyball battled it out in four neck-and-neck sets Thursday night, but this week’s Class 5A No. 2-ranked Jaguars came out on top, winning the first (25-22), third (30-28) and fourth sets (25-18).
In the first set, Castle View outside hitter Rylie Pattison got the Sabercats’ offense going with two early back-to-back kills. She was very clutch all night. Davis was lethal from the very beginning, and the Cats’ defense has to adjust for such a dominant player on the net.
Creighton-bound Davis is such a versatile player and burned Castle View all night on hits, tips, rolls, backrow attacks — you name it, she did it. She has the third most kills (127) in Colorado, regardless of class.
“Keeley is smoking gun,” Jags coach Angela Nylund-Hanson said. “Whenever we’re in a rut, we can always count on her to get us out with a kill.”
Castle View had excellent tip and block coverage all night and went for everything. Except the Cats got burned on a few deep left back balls. The Cats were able to handle Davis’ attacks a little more in the second and claimed the set (25-23) on a Pattison kill.
The third set was definitely the most intense, going all the way to 30 points. Castle View’s Pattison and outside hitter Kate Menz — one of the state’s leading players in kills — were trading clutch plays and scoring points when it mattered most. Pattison tied the game up twice after the points had gone beyond 25. But Davis was there to slam is right back and keep the Jags up.
“There was some good volleyball on both sides of the net,” Cats head coach Scott Dowis said. “Davis and Menz play on the same club team, and they were battling it out so both teams were trying to get the ball to them.”
The Jags only had true advantage in the fourth set, when they jumped out to an early 9-3 lead.
“We have to start the game on a lead like that and not dig ourselves out every time,” Nylund-Hanson said. “We struggled with that in the first three.
But with strong outside hitting and great defense, Castle View battled back and Pattison got the Sabercats within two points, cutting the score to 15-17. Rock Canyon’s 5-foot-1 setter Skylar Lane was explosive all night and had great passing from her Jags defense to boot; she also had an impressive spike tight at the net in the waning moments of the game.
“We did a great job passing and getting the ball to Skylar so she could feed us all night,” Davis said.
Next up, Castle View (5-4) travels to take on Mountain Vista, and Rock Canyon (7-1) hosts Legend.