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Roaring Fork volleyball falls to Olathe in 4 sets

Mike Vidakovich
Post Independent

The Roaring Fork girls volleyball team jumped out to a 25-23 first-game victory in Saturday evening’s Western Slope League matchup with the visiting Olathe Pirates, but it wasn’t enough as the Pirates came storming back to take the next three games by scores of 25-22, 25-19, and 25-17 to take the match win by a 3-1 count.

Olathe got off to quick starts in all four of the conference games. A 9-6 lead in game number one was countered by the serving of Ram junior Letey Crownhart who did some hard, pinpoint serving to stake the Rams to a 10-9 advantage.

Roaring Fork continued to lead the opening game at 17-14 with consistent defensive play and communication near the net. The final touches on the game one victory came for the Rams when junior Grace Jardine and senior Isabella Hernandez recorded kills to give the Rams a quick jump out of the gates.



Game number two was a back and forth affair with neither team ever able to gain much separation on the other. Once again, the Rams spotted Olathe an early 5-1 lead, but came charging back as junior Lily Nieslanik had a nice run at the service line to bring Roaring Fork back to just a 5-4 deficit.

Junior Sydney Schramer recorded a kill to make it 13-12 in favor of the Pirates. Roaring Fork came all the way back as the front-line of Schramer, Jardine, and Nieslanik kept the Pirate offense at bay. Senior Ruby Fuller put the Rams up 19-15 with a service ace, but Pirate Aylin Ramirez got hot at the service line, leading Olathe on a decisive scoring stretch that the Rams had no answer for.



Following the game two loss, Roaring Fork seemed to get out of sync on both the offensive and defensive end of things. Several Ram miscues led to Pirate runs in the match’s final two games.

As had been the case all night long, Olathe jumped out to a 6-0 lead in game number three, forcing Rams head coach Karen Crownhart to signal for a timeout. Following the stoppage in play, Schramer stuffed one over the net, and Nieslanik and Jardine spiked a couple of winners to bring the Rams to within 20-16, but the momentum was short-lived as Olathe closed out the game at 25-19.

The final game of the match was all Pirates as a 4-1 Olathe margin grew to 10-6, and then 14-7 to help the visitors take command of things early on. When Pirate Daisey Ibarra recorded a kill to put Olathe up 18-9, the hole was too deep for Roaring Fork to work its way out of.

With the home loss, the Rams drop to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in the WSL. Another stern test awaits Roaring Fork, as they host the Coal Ridge Titans next Tuesday night, Sept. 17, in Carbondale.

sports@postindependent.com


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