The West Fork volleyball team rallied from a 2-1 deficit to survive and advance in five sets 3-2 at Belmond-Klemme in a Class 2A Region 1 first round match on Monday, as aired on 104.9 KLMJ. The Warhawks won by set scores of 21-25, 25-9, 18-25, 25-21, 15-8.
In the first set, following a tie at 8, Belmond-Klemme went on an 11-5 run to build up a 19-13 lead. The Broncos closed out the set on a 7-5 run to up 1-0. In the second set, West Fork jumped out to an 18-5 lead and closed out the set from there, to even the match at set a piece. In the third set, the Broncos from an 11-10 advantage went on a 14-7 run to regain momentum, back up 2-1 in the match. In the fourth set, neither team led by more than five, the Warhawks pulled way late to force a decisive fifth set. In the final set, the Warhawks never trailed and led by as many as six to complete the comeback and advance.
Brooke Rother had 12 kills and Brylee Dickman had 11 kills to lead the Warhawks.
Rother shares the connection she has with the setters and what a win like this means.
“I’m so grateful for my setters. They always see who can do what, at what time and at what moment in the game. I think we’ve gained a lot of confidence with each other and trust, I think that’s a big part. Thankful for them and thanks for all the sets they gave to me tonight,” says Rother. “We’re close with these seniors. Going into this game we were thinking we have to get a win. We want to practice tomorrow. We want to show Denver that we’re not what our record says. It feels great knowing that we’re moving on.”
B-K Head Coach Leigh Faaborg shares her thoughts on how the match played out.
“I thought tonight was probably going to look like this. I thought it would be a long one and a competitive one. It was that. Unfortunately, it just didn’t end the way that we needed it to, to move on. I think one of the things that would have been really significant for us is, we had a couple of hitters that we just couldn’t get the ball to enough. That would have definitely made our offense a little bit more aggressive,” says Faaborg. “Overall, it was a great matchup. I thought our kids did some things that were really great at times. Then we also kind of hit a roller coaster at times, you could see that with some of the scores.”
Nevi McMurray had 11 kills and Carly Stein added nine kills to lead the Broncos.
West Fork (10-9) will travel to defending state champion and #1 (2A) Denver for a regional quarterfinal match on Wednesday. Belmond-Klemme concluded their season at 2-22 overall.
