One of the distinguished instructors at the All-American Volleyball Camp in Ignacio during the summer, former Purdue University star Ariel Turner noted her decision to come was virtually a no-brainer.
"Of course I said 'Yes,' being that I'm from Colorado," said the 5A Highlands Ranch Mountain Vista grad, her bags also packed for her trip to join German Bundesliga semifinalists SC Schweriner for the 2015-16 season. "It means a lot more to me to do something 'local' as opposed to a school I've never heard of, or really far away."
Though within the Centennial State's borders, IHS may as well have been one such site.
"Never really been down here," Turner admitted. "Been in the San Juans a couple times camping you know, but I've never been this far south before!"
Seeing their first varsity action Tuesday night inside a gymnasium they hadn't played in for nearly a full year, the Volleycats faced a familiar first opponent - 4A Kirtland Central.
Unfortunately for Ignacio, the Broncos had the "horses" down the stretch and took the teams' season-opener three games to one (28-26, 17-25, 25-15, 25-12).
"With the aggressive serving we're going to have a lot more errors than just trying to get it over the net," said IHS Head Coach Thad Cano, addressing his team's success from the line, but also KCHS' profiting from mistakes. "But it's working out very, very well; I'm very happy at the moment.strongest point of tonight's match was definitely our serving."
And in Game 2 Ignacio put it well on display. Having seen sophomore Shoshone Thompson fire two aces during what ended up a game-breaking 6-0 run, making the score at the time 16-8, junior Alex Forsythe drilled another on game point-making up for a hitting error that tied Game 1 at 26-26. Then Central sophomore Jerica Holiday served an ace to end a wild starting stanza tied 14 times.
The score was even just once in Game 3, as KC (1-0, 0-0 District 1-4A) took a 2-1 lead and never looked back while letting Ignacio get no closer than 3-2 early on a block by junior middle Kelly Campbell and 18-14 late on a Campbell smash-the type of kill coveted and cultivated in Cano's attacking schemes.
"Offensively.most of our errors did come from that offense, being aggressive," he conceded. "But it's really raining in quickly versus other years we've been working with this, so I'm actually very pleased with where they're at right now."
Three Alex Cambridge aces running keyed Kirtland's swift 6-0 burst starting Game 4, and after a Campbell tip finally got the senior off serve, classmate Krystal Sheka got the ball back at 7-1 and stayed at the line until netting an offering, but still leaving IHS looking at an 11-2 deficit.
The 'Cats (0-1, 0-0 2A/1A San Juan Basin League) managed to claw back to 15-9, but Broncos Coach Nadia Begay-Watson alertly called a timeout and her players responded by gaining the next five points. That set up soph middle Dominique McGilbert's match-ending smack into a widespread Ignacio alignment.
"As a whole, the girls are doing exactly what I want," said Cano. "This next week we're going to definitely be working on our middle, the quick attacks. And for the outsides, there's going to be some young ladies that I've called up from JV that'll be challenging for a position.so all in all it's going to be super competitive in the gym."
The 'Cats will next see action Sept. 10 when 3A Monte Vista visits the Pine River Valley.
