TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School volleyball team split a weekend doubleheader with 3A Northeast Quadrant teams, Douglas and Buffalo.
Walking into the gym on Friday, THS coach Chelsi Jackson had a feeling the match against the WyoPreps.com Coaches and Media Poll No. 4-ranked Douglas Lady Bearcats.
That turned out to be true as ultimately, the Lady Blazers fell to the Douglas, 3-2 (22-25, 25-17, 20-25, 25-10, 15-12).
“I’m still happy. They played so good,” Jackson said. “That is a hard team to play. They were way more intense than they have been, and they kept the high the entire game. There is nothing to be down about.”
Torrington fell behind in the early stages of each set, including 2-0 in the first, 3-0 in the second, 4-0 in the third, 2-0 in the fourth and fifth sets.
“When you play at that intensity for five sets, you are bound to have some lows because it’s tiring,” Jackson said.
In the opening set, it was junior Sierra Allen who put the Lady Blazers in the opening set.
Her kill sparked a 6-1 spurt, and Torrington never trailed again for the remainder of the set.
The Lady Blazer lead reached as many as 18-13 after a junior Reece Halley kill, but Lady Bearcats had one more run in them, cutting the deficit to 22-21 before multiple mistakes by Douglas secured the win for THS.
In the second, Torrington battled back from the early deficit to take 9-6 after a shared block from Halley and junior Allison Brummell.
Douglas went on to score the next six points before tying the match at one apiece.
In the third, the Lady Blazers trailed from the onset until back-to-back kills from senior Michaela Moorehouse and Brummell gave THS a 17-16 advantage.
The two scores were a part of a 6-1 run and were able to keep Douglas at arms-length to take a 2-1 match lead.
In the fourth, it was all Douglas.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to push their lead to 17-7 in an effort to force a fifth and deciding set.
Torrington never led in the fifth, but the teams were tied on three occasions as Douglas slipped out of town with a victory.
Halley led the team with 20 kills and three aces, while Moorehouse added nine.
“When (Reece) gets fired up, she really puts it down,” Jackson said. “Same with Michaela, she can put it down. It’s almost better when they get upset because they can really do some damage.”
Brummell had five kills and a game-high 12 stuff blocks. Senior Emily McGaugh led the team with 17 digs, while senior Morgan Bates had 16 digs and 32 assists.
Less than 12 hours later, the Lady Blazers were on a bus for a three-and-a-half-hour ride to Buffalo.
“We’ll be fine though. We haven’t seen Buffalo or heard anything about Buffalo,” Jackson said. “I think we can take them, but we aren’t going to underestimate them by any means.”
That’s exactly what Torrington did in a 3-1 (25-17, 25-15, 15-25, 25-18) victory over the Lady Bison.
Moorehouse led the team with 12 kills, while Halley added nine. Brummell had six kills and five stuff blocks. Bates, junior Avery West and Halley tallied three aces each. Senior Kameron Stitt tallied a team-high 13 digs, while Bates handed out 27 assists.
The Blazers (11-3) are scheduled to host Wheatland at 4 p.m. on Friday at and Rawlins at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
