Aspen Merrifield | AMBER GARCIA PHOTO
Sarah Kracht | AMBER GARCIA PHOTO
MEEKER I The Cowboys opened their season this past weekend taking on Coal Ridge, Telluride, and Dolores and came home 3-0.
Game one of the weekend against Coal Ridge the scores were 25-14, 23-25, 25-14, 25-21 and the Cowboys took the win. Emma Luce led the team with 30 kills, Tatumn Kennedy led with eight serving aces while both Savvy Mendenahll and Luce had five. Defensively, Aspen Merrifield had 21 digs, Luce had 15, and Sarah Kracht 10. Kracht handled 38 of the serves in Coal Ridge.
The team traveled to Hotchkiss Saturday for a double header against Dolores and Telluride on neutral territory.
“This weekend was a great opportunity to play some teams for the San Juan League,” began head coach Greg Cravens, “both teams were very good at serving and stressed our serve receive a little bit. Telluride had all the answers against us in the first set. We helped by having too many serve errors and hitting errors. We settled down in the second set and started playing to our expectations for this time of the year. Telluride had a very good middle who challenged our middle hitters. Dolores had a very good outside hitter that could hit hard anywhere on the court. I was very proud of our defense against Dolores.”
Scores against Telluride 16-25, 25-13, 25-18, and 25-11; Cowboys took the last three sets for the win.
Scores against Dolores 25-19, 25-14, and 25-12, the Cowboys won 3-0.
Luce finished the day with 40 kills bringing her total up to 70 so far for the year.
“Aspen and Savvy turned it up and got some kills that I didn’t think they could hit,” commented Cravens.
Kennedy ended with 65 assists on the day, and “Sarah was a digging machine all day,” said Cravens.
Another week with back to back games, Thursday in Delta beginning at 4 and then their home opener against Limon.
“We jump into another fun week with Delta and Limon. Limon is always tough and Delta should end up as one of the top teams in the 3A Western Slope League,” wrapped up Cravens.
By TIFFANY JEHOREK – Special to the Herald Times
