As the 2009 volleyball season heads into its final week of
regular season action, Woodland Park is sitting pretty.
The Panthers, 14-3 overall, are tied with Mitchell for fourth
place in the 4A Metro League standings at 5-3, trailing Cheyenne
Mountain and Lewis-Palmer— two teams that were in last year’s Final
Four— as well as Mesa Ridge.
With third place on the line to begin last week, the Panthers
and Grizzlies (15-3) got together Oct. 13 in Woodland Park. Yet it
was Mesa Ridge who came away victorious in a five-set thriller.
Matches don’t get much closer than the marathon that the two
schools put on either as the Grizzlies took the first two sets
26-24 and 25-23, and then the Panthers came back, taking the next
two, 26-24 and 25-22.
“The first and second game they were playing timid, they were
playing scared, and then they got the confidence in that third game
and just kept pushing and rolling and got excited,” said head coach
Stacyt Roshek afterwards. “That’s what we need all the time, is to
just keep that momentum going and keep that energy up, and not let
them [the opponent] take anything from us.”
Mesa Ridge started off the fifth set with a 6-2 lead, but WPHS
came right back, knotting things up at 8-8 and it appeared things
were going to go right to the wire. However, the Grizzlies took the
next four poin to go up 12-8, and after the Panthers cut it to
12-10, Mesa Ridge pulled away for the 15-11 victory.
Kira Roberts led the Panthers with 15 kills, 24 digs and eight
blocks as Tessie Koziol added 15 kills and 18 digs up front. Katie
Lindquist recorded 40 assists on the night and Emily Harpe put up
10 kills and 13 digs in defeat.
“That last game was a heartbreaker,” Roshek said. “It was close
and I think Mesa Ridge just wanted it more than we did. We made a
few mental mistakes and that’s what cost us in the end.”
The Panthers rebounded two nights later with a 3-0 win over
Widefield, winning 25-16, 25-16, 25-21. Harpe and Roberts each had
nine digs in the victory, while Emily Gammill and Koziol added
eight. Koziol and Nicole Babiarz led the way with nine digs and
Lindquist, once again, went for 40 assists on the evening.
Woodland Park closes out its regular season this week with a
pair of winnable games Oct. 20 vs. Sierra (6-10, 1-7 Metro) and
Oct. 22 at Falcon (9-8, 4-4). Both matches begin at 6:30 p.m.
“They are a team that likes to fight,” said Roshek of her
Panthers. “They know that they can win and they just keep pushing.
I have a great group of leaders that want to just fight and win and
play tough. They know they have the fight in them and they want to
do it. We’ll just keep pushing.”
As long as they maintain their position in the top four of the
league standings Woodland Park will be pushing itself right into
the postseason, which commences Oct. 30.