RHS volleyball team defeats Hotchkiss in five

RANGELY I The Rangely High School volleyball team won an exciting five-game match Saturday against Hotchkiss.
The young Rangely team proved once again they have what it takes to play in tough games; over the weekend team members showed they have the perseverance to last through the long matches.
The Panthers came out strong, winning the first game 25-21 behind the strong play of setters Aimee Hogan and Antoinette Dorris handling the ball 72 and 63 times, respectively. for the match, leading to 15 and 10 assists.
Rangely played well in the second game, forcing the game to extra points before falling 24-26. They dominated the third game 25-15, as Chelsea Ficken led all hitters with nine kills. The team stayed strong but lost a tight fourth game 23-25, forcing a fifth game.
Six servers for the Panthers recorded double-digit serves. Simone Heinle had 19, Katye Allred had 12, Carrie Goddard had 16, Antoinette Dorris had 25, Lindzey Thacker added 20 and Aimee Hogan served 17 times, proving they were fighting for every rotation, winning the final game 15-13 to claim the match.
Coach Jimmie Mergelman said, “We played a lot better on Friday, but not to our full potential.”
The team came off a loss to a much improved Plateau Valley on Friday night, but Mergelman said she looks forward to Nucla and Vail Christian this weekend.
The match against Plateau Valley was not the league contest that counted. The Panthers learned from the game and moved on to win an impressive match Saturday.