Devils volleyball returns with Summit sweep

Eagle Valley still remembered how to play volleyball.

The ladies are back — mostly — and were in fine form despite what turned out to be a two-week hiatus due to COVID-19 with an efficient 25-17, 25-17, 25-16 sweep at Summit on Tuesday evening.

“I don’t think we had as much nerves, but that we were just thrown off by the change of environment,” Eagle Valley coach Mike Garvey said. “We were a team playing on spring break. (Summit) was on spring break. It was little bit of the Twilight Zone. This is the longest short season I’ve ever been a part of.”

And Garvey takes the lead for “The Rimshot of the Week.”

With all but three players able to play, the Devils (9-1) got back on the court, played a match and won easily. Did the Devils look a little rusty? No kidding, Sherlock, but this is ideally why, if health conditions allowed, Devils fans wanted two matches before the postseason begins.

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Coach Garvey felt that his team started to feel the rhythm during the second set. And now, Eagle Valley can get after it at Glenwood Springs on Saturday in the regular-season finale and sharpen everything after the pause.

Playoff picture

Eagle Valley was in when it went into quarantine. The Devils were still a playoff team during their time off. They are still a playoff team now.

Entering Tuesday, the Devils were eighth in the coaches’ poll, second in rating-percentage index and third in maxpreps.com. With 24 teams qualifying for regionals — and Eagle Valley has no issue with the postseason requirement of eight matches minimum — the bigger issue is finishing in the top eight for home-court advantage for regionals on May 1.

Before Devils fans start to bark about the coaches’ poll, it’s likely that Eagle Valley will rise in that when the votes are collected after this weekend’s action, while it will drop in the RPI because Summit and Glenwood Springs have sub-.500 records. (The opponents’ winning percentage, or strength of schedule, is the largest element in RPI, so a team can drop in rankings though it still wins. Please don’t shoot the messenger.)

Nonetheless, the troika of indices are in the right range for home-cooking.

There is also the matter of the 4A Slope title. Palisade is 6-1, while Eagle Valley is 5-1. The two teams split their matches and will not play complete league schedules for the purposes of a tiebreaker.

Who wins?

“Don’t know. Don’t care,” Garvey said. “I don’t know how they’re going to do it. Thankfully, both teams are high in the rankings [and will qualify]. We’re hoping to have the highest seed.”

Senior Night

In the meantime, there is some celebrating to do. Eagle Valley lost its Senior Night during its COVID-19 hiatus. Ergo, Senior Night is Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

It is open to the public, and everyone must wear masks and do the social-distancing thing. The squad will do their ceremony and then scrimmage against each other. Our advice is to root for Eagle Valley.

The Eagle Valley volleyball Class of 2021 are Avery VanGoey, Olivia Fedrizzi, Cloey Jones, Allie Carvill, Claire Whelan, Sophia Rinn and Eli Wetzel.