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Another Glenwood-Steamboat thriller

Luke GrahamSteamboat Pilot & TodayPost IndependentGlenwood Springs, CO Colorado
Matt Stensland Steamboat Pilot & Today
ALL |

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colorado – Maybe when the Steamboat Springs and Glenwood Springs volleyball teams meet up, the two should just fast forward to the fifth game and see who wins. Of course, that would leave out most of the drama and buildup. But take the script from Steamboat’s five-game win over the Demons on Sept. 19, and it simply could have been applied to Thursday’s five-game, high-intensity win for the Sailors. Steamboat, now 11-3 overall and 8-1 in the 4A Western Slope League, outfought a tough and feisty Glenwood team, winning 21-25, 25-20, 25-18, 20-25 and 15-11. “We’re always fighting. It goes back to when I played. We’re always fighting,” said Glenwood coach Amber Sutherland, a 2004 Glenwood graduate. “We’re both a group of confident players. Just to see competition like that – you don’t see that all the time.””I bet you I can go back into the books and look at the matches between Glenwood and Steamboat and I would be surprised if it wasn’t eight out of 10 of those matches didn’t go five games,” Steamboat coach Wendy Hall said. “It just seems to be our pattern with them. I don’t know why it is. I guess we’re evenly matched teams, year in and year out. I don’t think either team feels like they’re going to get beat.”And, right on cue, each team had opportunities to win the match. Glenwood (9-4, 4-4) took the first game after Steamboat jumped out to a big lead. The Demons trailed, 13-8, before they came roaring back. But the real turning point came in the second game. Steamboat was trailing 12-7, and looking lackadaisical, when Hall called a timeout. “I felt like we were flat,” she said. “I felt like we weren’t enthusiastic enough. We’re playing a big match in our home gym. I yelled and screamed. Our energy changed at that point.”It certainly did. Steamboat, trailing 15-10, went on a 10-1 run behind three kills from Devin Wilkinson, a kill from Maggie Stanford and five Glenwood errors, to take a 20-16 lead. Steamboat cruised in the next game, before Glenwood responded behind the hitting of Anna Gauldin, Kehau Vegas, Kenzi Caple and Taryn Pearce. The four kept Steamboat guessing and cruised to the win. “We were taking care of what we could do on our side,” Sutherland said. “If we don’t do that, we can’t finish games.”With the fifth game tied at 4, the Sailors turned to seniors Wilkinson and Colleen King. The two served up seven kills for Steamboat to walk away with the win. “It’s totally mental,” said Wilkinson, who had 15 kills and 10 blocks. “I think we have all the skill, but it’s mentally putting ourselves out there.”King added 15 kills and Stanford chipped in seven for the Sailors. Pearce led the Demons with 11 kills, Gauldin added 10 and Vegas and Caple each chipped in nine. Glenwood next plays Moffat on Saturday, while Steamboat plays at Summit.


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