‘Will you be the 6 to my 7?’ Mid-match homecoming proposal steals show as Huskies defeat Devils in rivalry rematch

If you get asked out to homecoming with your volleyball team leading 2-0, you simply can’t let the other team come back.

“I wasn’t really expecting it, but I kind of had a feeling,” Battle Mountain middle Ruth Casey said when asked about the moment soccer star Jakob Methvin walked over to the Husky bench after the second set repping a No. 7 soccer jersey — teammates in tow — holding flowers and a sign which read, ‘Will you be the ‘6’ to my ‘7.’ Methvin’s mid-game homecoming proposal was met with giggles, smiles and an acceptance.

“I was anticipating it — definitely not in the middle of the game — but I was excited for sure,” said Casey, who didn’t let the Huskies drop the ball, either. The junior made the clinching block on Cadence Aguilar at the end of the 25-23 first-set victory and came up with a momentum-shifting spike to put the home team up 23-14 in the second.

“I think we just wanted it,” Casey said of her team’s hot start. “We had really good momentum in the first two sets.”

Battle Mountain needed to rally from a 2-1 deficit in the rivals’ first meeting in Gypsum last month. Coach Scott Graves said his undefeated squad came in Thursday with a different approach to managing the Devils’ dynamic outside-hitting duo of Aguilar and Riley Weatherred.

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“It was working at the start,” Graves said of the game plan. “But it was frustrating because we started forgetting what we were doing and going off instincts. But we’ve improved our blocking. We got more blocks on Riley today.”

In the first, however, Weatherred seemed untethered from the rules of gravity. The springy, powerful spike artist registered her fourth kill of the set to make it 10-9. Battle Mountain’s Cynthia Orona went out of bounds in retaliation before Devils’ setter Kaitlyn Garvey’s ace put the visitor’s up for the first time. Then, Weatherred notched a fifth kill to make it 12-10 and all indications pointed to another potential five-set slugfest.

And while the Huskies returned with a 4-0 run of their own, Weatherred launched an insane cross-court missile to make it 21-20 and fed off the visiting student section roar with back-to-back kills on the following volley. Meanwhile, the Battle Mountain students managing a mock ESPN GameDay desk amongst the pink-clad bleachers were caught frantically changing their production notes when Husky freshman Riley Jennings came up with a go-ahead ace before Casey’s set-ending block.

“We were at our home gym, we had a lot of support and I think we just wanted it,” Casey said. “I was just excited. I’m always excited to be on the court and be with my teammates and hopefully contribute something to the team.”

While Battle Mountain won the first two and came back from an 11-7 deficit in the third to tie things up at 21 all, the Devils demonstrated remarkable resilience, scoring four straight to stay alive.

“I don’t think they know it yet, but there’s a lot of John Wooden teachings going on and one of the center bases of the pyramid is friendship. There’s a lot of kids on this team that are really close with each other and have been for a long time and it’s the basis of our strength,” Eagle Valley coach Mike Garvey remarked regarding his team’s never-say-die attitude. “There’s never a negative moment. They really believe in themselves. When someone makes a mistake, they move on and say, ‘I’m behind you 100%’ and keep going.”

Battle Mountain jumped out to a 15-6 lead in the fourth and used its size to sufficiently shut down the Devils’ attack late. Weatherred was limited, but came up with one last awe-inspiring kill to make it 24-15, staving off the ‘na na na na, hey, hey, hey, goodbye’ anthem for a brief moment as the Devils served into the net on the next play. The match-ending mistake showcased an issue Garvey felt plagued his team throughout the game.

“When you error on the first ball — we had just too many opportunities where we took the ball away from ourselves,” said Garvey, who remained optimistic after the loss.

“We know (Battle Mountain) has a big block. It was one of those nights where both our outside hitters had phenomenal games and made a lot of improvements. I told our players, we’re better coming out of this match,” he continued. “While you’d like the win, there’s a lot of things out there that were really good and better than we were doing before. So, you let this one go by and stay focused on the rest.”

Eagle Valley (7-7 overall) still sits third in the league with a 5-2 record. Coming off four-straight wins prior to Thursday’s loss, the Devils have two huge matches against Glenwood Springs (9-2 overall, 3-1 league) next Tuesday in Gypsum and on Oct. 21 away.

“We’ve been on a nice streak here and again, I think there were great things we did tonight, and I know they’re going to be excited to get Glenwood,” Garvey said. “Our focus is being ready for playoffs. We’ve got to be the best team when we get to that point and this was a step forward for us.”

Battle Mountain improved to 8-0 on the year. In the last two seasons under Graves, the Huskies have gone 29-1 in regular season matches.

“Do I want to be undefeated? Yeah. Is it in the back of my mind? A little bit,” said Graves, who knows the schedule is about to get a lot tougher. At the end of the month, the Huskies travel to Denver to face four top 5A schools. Graves said he’d like to at least leave the Front Range with an even split. That being said, the coach knows his athletes can’t underestimate any opponent.

“We can’t look past anybody,” he said. We have to make sure we’re showing up every single game hyper focused. “We’re still learning and there’s places we have to get better. We’ll get there.”