(Andre Lyseight/CHSAANow.com)
PARKER — Tuesday night the “Pride of Parker” was on the line as the CHSAANow.com Class 5A No. 2-ranked Chaparral Wolverines took on 4A’s No.3 Ponderosa Mustangs in a match that was more about hometown bragging rights than it was about adding another mark to the win column.
Ponderosa swept Chaparral 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-19) in dominating fashion. The two teams’ student sections showed up to watch their teams faceoff, but the Mustangs clearly outnumbered the Wolverines in terms of fans. Ponderosa was able to feed off the electrifying atmosphere at home throughout the whole game.
“We have great fans,” said Ponderosa head coach Rob Graham. “The girls feed off it. When the energy is low its amazing how it seeps into how they play. We had one of the worse practices we ever had yesterday. I didn’t get mad because I knew that they knew when this crowd is here they are coming to play.”
Ponderosa started the first set off strong, dominating with multiple unanswered points. Chaparral came out flustered and struggled to get anything going.
When it looked like they were starting to figure out Ponderosa’s defense, the Mustangs kept plays alive and prevented the Wolverines from getting in to any kind of rhythm. Fueled by the crowd, Ponderosa closed out the set 25-18.
The Wolverines continued to struggle during the second set. They misjudged numerous balls that appeared to be going out of bounds only to see them land in play.
Despite several mistakes, the Wolverines managed to stay in the game. Junior setter Jasmine Schmidt helped her team get back in the game with clutch strikes, tying the score at 22-22 and forcing Ponderosa to call a timeout. The Mustangs came out of timeout with a 2-0 run and a finishing kill from senior outside hitter Allison Smith to win the set 25-23.
“I think we struggled a little bit getting started,” said Schmidt. “I think we felt that if we just played with confidence we could just beat them walking in, but we had to play with more effort and more passion. We need to work together and adjust to our situations. We just needed to play together as a team.”
With their backs against the wall, the Wolverines got off to a 4-0 run to start in the third set. But like they had all night, the Mustangs quickly answered back, going on a 6-0 run of their own.
Chaparral could not capitalize on any of the back and forth plays between the two teams. Every time the Wolverines gained momentum, the Mustangs would have a response.
(Andre Lyseight/CHSAANow.com)
Chaparral got within reach and cut the Ponderosa lead to 18-17 but couldn’t get over the hump. Smith helped her team once again finish off the final set with vicious kills that put the crowd into a frenzy as the Mustangs won the third and final set 25-19.
“We played really well,” said Graham. “We serve tough, our offense was pretty unstoppable, we owned the net at blocking, we played great backcourt defense. It was one of those things were everything was working and wasn’t really clicking for them.”
Chaparral coach Amanda West believes they could have made adjustments that could have changed the outcome of the game.
“We struggled to adjust to what they were doing on their side and we could have made some key adjustments I think we could have had a whole different game,” said West. “We look to continue to get better every single game every single practice.”