Meeker | You must play the best to be the best, and that was the goal for Meeker Cowboy volleyball the past weekend when they traveled to the Denver Christian tournament. Meeker went 1-2 in the tournament, but gained valuable experience with a group that is really focusing in on playing with each other.
Teams attending included Holyoke, Denver Christian, Front Range Christian, Sedgwick, Ignacio, Strasburg and Vail Mountain.
“This was another great learning weekend for us,” commented head coach Greg Cravens. “This was a good 2A tournament with some good teams.”
Meeker opened the tournament with Holyoke.
“We started with Holyoke which was a great match up for us, and we played them well but lost in five sets,” said Cravens.
Sets scores were 15-25, 26-24, 25-19, 19-25, 13-25.
Ainsley Selle led with 13 kills, Reese Clatterbaugh had eight and Rylee Sullivan six.
“Reese had a very good overall match,” commented Cravens.
Clatterbaugh led with five aces and defensively three blocks.
Meeker took on the hosts next and finished the game in three sets; 26-24, 25-23, and 25-10.
Selle led again with seven kills, Sullivan had five and both Clatterbaugh and Natalie Kracht had four each.
“We are working on getting better at serve receive,” said Cravens. “We also changed our line up a little to see if we could create a little more offense and the changes helped us win a three set match.”
The Cowboys finished off with Front Range Christian.
“Front Range Christian passed very well and we had a very hard time finding points,” said Cravens.
Meeker lost in four sets 16-25, 25-20, 19-25 and 20-25.
The number of kills and digging reflects a hard fought game for the Cowboys. Clatterbaugh was top at the net with seven kills and Ainsley and Adi Selle each had six.
“We had some great rallies but just couldn’t finish them off,” commented Cravens.
In the back row Taylor Garcia led the tournament with 35 digs in the final game and 84 for the tournament.
Ellie Hossack and Graycee Cravens split setting duties. Hossack had 41 assists and Graycee 47.
Meeker only has one match against Soroco this week on Friday at 4 p.m. beginning with C team. “It will be good to get more practice during the week,” wrapped-up Cravens.
