GHS volleyball team adds two more wins, improves to 5-6

The Gunnison High School vvolleyball team improved to 5-6 with two wins last week, and now the girls have won three of their last four matches.

The team started the week with a home match against the Roaring Fork Rams on Thursday, Sept. 17. They won the match 3-1 behind big third and fourth sets. The Cowboys won the first set 25-20, lost the second set 25-23, then bounced back to win the third set 25-11 and the fourth set 25-18.

Maya Petrie led the team with 12 kills in the match, Roxie Uhrig had 11 and Gianna Wickenhauser had eight. Kat Rodriguez led the team with five aces, Addison Claus led with 19 assists, and Rodriguez also led with 25 digs.

As a team, they had a serve percentage of 91.7%.

Just a couple of days later, the team traveled to Moffat County on Saturday, Sept. 19, to take on the Bulldogs. The Cowboys won the match 3-0, taking the first set 25-13, the second set 25-23 and the third set 25-21.

Petrie led the team with 14 kills in the match, while Uhrig and Claus each had seven. Natalie Sabino had two aces to lead the team, while Petrie, Wickenhauser and Claus each had one.

Claus had a team-high 40 assists and Sabino had 14. Uhrig led the team with 14 digs and Rodriguez had 10.

As a team, the Cowboys had a 94.6% serve percentage.

“The girls are doing a great job of integrating a multitude of offensive options,” wrote head coach Shana Benson in an email to the Times. “We are also serving at 90 percent plus, which is crucial. They're having a lot of fun and worked very hard in practice prior to these games.”

Benson emphasized that the team served and hit very well over the last two games. She praised Wickenhauser for doing a good job getting to the block, Sabino and Claus for setting the ball well for the hitters, and Uhrig for being consistent.

This week, the Cowboys will play only one match, hosting Delta (3-3) on Thursday, Sept. 24. The Panthers are ranked 24th in Class 3A.

“For Delta, we need to work on using all of our hitters and getting them out of system,” wrote Benson. “We are working on combo hits to keep them guessing.”