Cowboys improve to 10-9 with wins over Middle Park, Basalt

The Gunnison High School volleyball team improved to 10-9 ahead of their final tournament of the regular season with two wins last week.

The Cowboys played a double-header against Middle Park and Basalt at home on Friday, Oct. 23. The girls defeated Middle Park in five sets and then hours later defeated Basalt in three sets.

“I was so proud of the grit the girls showed in our five sets,” wrote head coach Shana Benson. “They finished when they could've given up. They worked so hard together as a team.”

The girls lost the first set 25-21, won the second set 25-22, then lost the third set 26-24. They were able to regroup on the brink of a loss and win the final two sets, 25-16 and 15-12.

“They attacked the ball and served very well,” wrote Benson. “Our backrow passed extremely well, setting up our setters to utilize any of our hitters in the front row.”

After some food, the Cowboys regrouped and got ready for the second of their two games that afternoon. 

Using the confidence gained from the five-set win over Middle Park, the Cowboys defeated Basalt 3-0, winning the first set 25-15, the second set 25-11 and the third set 25-23.

“Roxie Uhrig had a team high 17 kills and a 91% hitting percentage,” wrote Benson. “That is a team high for the season. Kat Rodriguez was solid in the back row all day with team high 33 digs, and served extremely well with a 93% for the day and 5 aces. Emma Bogart read the hitters well in the back row as well with 12 digs. Our setters, Natalia Sabino and Addison Claus, worked their tails off to set our hitters up in the best way-each had 11 vs Basalt and Addison had 24 vs Middle Park and Natalia had 14.”

The Cowboys will head to Buena Vista for their final regular season tournament of the season. The tournament starts on Friday, Oct. 30, and ends the following day Saturday, Oct. 31.

The girls open the tournament up with matches against Lake County (7-10) and Platte Canyon (14-6) on Friday and then play Buena Vista (15-5) and Meeker (16-3) on Saturday.

“We are doing a lot of game situation drills,” wrote Benson when asked about the team’s preparation. “We are playing good volleyball right now, which is prime time of the season to be doing so. I am so proud of their resilience and determination.”