Liz Copan / ecopan@summitdaily.com
The Summit High School volleyball team departed this weekend’s Battle Mountain Tournament with improved confidence thanks to three wins and a runner-up finish.
The Tigers (5-7) began the tournament’s pool play Friday night at Battle Mountain High School with a three-sets-to-one win over the Aspen Skiers. The Tigers recovered after a 25-21 first set loss to the Skiers, winning the second set 25-12, the third set 25-18 and the fourth set 27-25.
“They are very quick in the middle,” Summit Head Coach Kelly Schneweis said of Aspen. “We did a good job at defending against the middle and making sure that we were targeting certain players on serve receives. I felt like our serving and passing helped in the entire match.”
The Tigers then clawed back to defeat Northfield High from Denver in four sets after dropping the first set 25-22. Summit won three consecutive sets 25-13, 25-21 and 25-20. They entered Saturday morning’s finale of pool play undefeated at the tournament.
“Northfield was a very physical outside hitting team,” Schneweis said. “Their setters were very consistent, but we continued to work on our system and we had few errors, and I think that’s what helped to take it.”
Summit began Saturday down a few players, who taking the SAT, but defeated Vail Christian in straight sets 25-12, 25-14 and 25-20.
“All three sets we took the early lead on some tough serves by senior Anna Confer,” Schneweis said. “And we had senior Lauren Fox and junior Mya Nicholds, they were our setters the entire match and it really helped with Lauren being in the front row for blocking and offense. And Maya did a really good job keeping her hitters swinging.”
Summit also benefited from the Saturday morning return of starting middle Olivia Brewer, who was out of action for several weeks due to an ankle injury. Schneweis said Brewer quickly found her groove, re-finding her timing and connecting with Summit’s setters.
The three-win streak led up to the championship against the winners of the other pool, the home-team Battle Mountain Huskies, a team Summit lost to at home in four sets earlier this year. For this game, outside hitter Camden Gallen and middle Christina Koetteritz returned from the SAT.
The Huskies advanced to the title game after a hard-fought four-set win over Alamosa, one of the top teams in the state. Against Battle Mountain, Summit lost the first set 25-10, with the Huskies out-serving and out-passing the Tigers in front of their energetic home crowd.
Summit recovered, grinding out the second set for a 27-25 win.
“I think we started passing better,” Schneweis said, “which allowed us to run our middle more often, and we were playing much better defense.”
Battle Mountain then won the third set 25-12, the Tigers struggling to stop the Huskies’ middle. The Tigers started the fourth set down 10-20, eventually making a game of it in before losing 25-16.
Summit will travel back to Battle Mountain on Thursday after a home match versus Eagle Valley on Tuesday (Summit High, 6:30 p.m.).
“I think we can adjust to what they showed us today,” Schneweis said of the Tigers’ next game versus the Huskies.