ALAMOSA – The Alamosa High School volleyball team faced a traditionally tough opponent on Thursday as it hosted Bayfield at the AHS gym.
The Lady Mean Moose won the first two sets by wide margins with the scores being 25-8 and 25-9, respectively. But the Lady Wolverines woke up in the third to make a game of it before Alamosa won 25-21 to record the sweep.
“I switched my outside to give a couple young girls a chance to give them some confidence,” said Alamosa coach Annie Mortensen. “My starting line-up is really strong, and it was a good opportunity to let them get stronger mentally for that third set.”
Alamosa started the first set with a 2-0 lead. After a brief Bayfield side out, the Lady Mean Moose went on a 9-3 run to increase their lead to 11-4.
The Lady Wolverines closed the margin to 11-6, but Alamosa ran off seven unanswered points for an 18-6 advantage. After another brief Bayfield side out, the Lady Mean Moose scored seven of the last eight points for a 25-8 win.
Bayfield opened the second set with a 1-0 lead, but Alamosa took a 2-1 edge. The Lady Wolverines tied the score, but the Lady Mean Moose scored eight consecutive points to push the margin to 10-2.
Bayfield closed its deficit to 11-5, but Alamosa answered with three straight points. The Lady Wolverines closed to within 14-7, but the Lady Mean Moose closed out the set by scoring 11 of the last 13 points and took a 25-9 victory.
Alamosa took a 1-0 lead to begin the third set. The teams exchanged side puts before the Lady Mean Moose scored four consecutive points for a 6-2 advantage.
Bayfield narrowed the gap to 7-5, but Alamosa answered with three straight points. The Lady Wolverines came back with a 5-0 run to tie the score at 10-10.
The Lady Mean Moose took a 13-11 lead, but the Lady Wolverines came back to take a 15-14 edge. Alamosa regained the lead at 16-15, but Bayfield scored three in a row for an 18-16 lead.
Once again, the Lady Mean Moose finished a set strong as they scored nine of the final12 points for a 25-21 win.
Morgan Ortega led the Alamosa offense with 23 assists. Aubrey Rothermich led the attack with 15 kills followed by Ortega with seven and Taybor Wiedeman with six. Ortega and Wiedeman both had three service aces to lead the Lady mean Moose in that category.
Alamosa (7-2, 2-0) will host a tri-meet with Gunnison and Hoehne on Saturday.
“Gunnison seems to be having a good season,” Mortensen said. “We have to focus on quick offense and be aggressive defensively. Passing was key for us.”
The first match begins at 9 a.m. at the AHS gym.
