Mountain 17s move up

Competing last weekend at the Rocky Mountain Region’s-USAV Power League No. 2 tourney on the Front Range, the Front Range Volleyball Club-Mountain Division 17s made good on their promise to move up to Division I.

Playing in Colorado Springs, the 17-Crimson team rallied behind the outstanding play of several Eagle County athletes to win every match in the minimum number of games. Their 4-0 record earned the FRVBC-Mountain Division 17s the championship of Division II and automatically moved them up to Division I of the Rocky Mountain Region-USAV.

“I was very impressed with our steady play under pressure in tight matches,” head coach Aaron Shepardson said.

The coach cited the play of Whitney VanVoorst, who was the team’s leading scorer in every match, Annalisa Padget, the second-leading scorer, Hannah Ellison, who was impressive as an attacker and kept constant service pressure on all of the opponents in every match and Kelsey Plath for her defense and passing throughout the tourney.

“Today was a good step in our development,” Shepardson said. “We kept competitive pressure on our opponents and focused. We were more consistently than what we had previously accomplished.”



U-14s

Playing at Colorado Christian University in Lakewood, the FRVBC-Mountain Division 14-Ruby team managed to hold on to its position in Division IV of the RMR-USAV 14-under Division despite going 1-2 in match play in its pool.

By virtue of beating the Club Stellar 14s (Colorado Springs) in their crossover match, the U-14s finished fifth and will remain in Division IV for the RMR-Power No. 3 tourney.

Citing Valley athletes Raechel Herridge, Sammy Miletich, and Kenzie O’Brien, U-14 head coach Jolene Shepardson said, “We are steadily improving as time goes on.”