Home, sweet, home: That’s what it took for the Roaring Fork High School girls volleyball team to finally earn their first win of the season.
That, and some solid play Tuesday night, Sept. 2, against the visiting Gore Rangers of Vail Mountain School.
After dropping the first six matches of the season, including a 3-1 loss in the 3A Western Slope League (WSL) opener at North Fork on Aug. 28, the Rams looked strong against 2A Vail Mountain en route to the 3-1 win (25-17, 25-20, 22-25, 25-21).
Senior Nikki Tardif, whose power hitting was key in claiming the victory, said she feels like things are finally coming together for a team that’s gone through some big adjustments coming into this season.
Not only did they lose some key players to graduation, including four-year starting setter Carley Crownhart and twin sister Erica, who played the libero position, the team also has a completely new coaching staff led by co-head coaches Rod Taylor and Canace Finley.
“We were really working together and I think we finally collected ourselves as a team,” Tardif said. “It’s been hard for us to come together, but I think we really brought it tonight.”
After cruising to the opening set win, the Rams had to battle from being down early in a back-and-forth second set before coming out on top, capped by a tough hit from senior Elleree Richmond to get it to set point. Tardif put it away with a smooth putback over the net on the volley.
Vail Mountain controlled the third set from early on, but the Rams battled back from seven points down before losing by only three points.
The fourth set was also close throughout, but the Rams’ power hitting, consistent serving and some scrappy play when needed helped control the pace and close out the victory for Roaring Fork.
“I’m really proud of our players,” coach Finley said. “We’ve switched it up on them a lot this season and had some of the girls playing positions they hadn’t practiced. We played cohesively as a team for the first time in a while, and our serves were great.”
The win was some needed stress relief for the whole squad, coach Taylor said.
“It was good to see some players playing next to each other and making it work a little better than we have so far,” he said. “I’m just excited to get away with that first win.”
Next up for the 1-6 Rams is another 3A WSL contest at Basalt on Thursday, Sept. 4 (6pm varsity game time), followed by a trip to play 5A Grand Junction on Sept. 11.