Earning a regular season win against the Green Mountain girls volleyball team on the Rams’ home court has been no easy task lately.
In fact, Green Mountain – two-time consecutive Class 4A champions of the Jeffco League – had not lost a regular season game on its home court since the fall of 2021. But Arvada West was up to the task on Tuesday night with a 5-set win over the Rams.
“This is definitely a new level for us,” said A-West coach Debbie Erickson of the Wildcats’ marathon road win of 22-25, 25-17, 26-24, 10-25 and 15-9. “We’ve been working toward this for four years. Our program gets better every year.”
The Wildcats (2-0 record) spoiled the Rams’ (0-1) season and home game in a game that went the distance. A-West won the second and third sets to take a 2-1 lead, but Green Mountain fought back with a dominating 25-10 victory in the fourth set to force a fifth set.
“After the fourth set, we just let it go,” said A-West senior Sammy Guenther. “We started over and acted like it was a new game.”
A-West capitalized on three service errors by the Rams at the start of the fifth set. Guenther and teammate Elizabeth Edone both hit two kills in the fifth set to contribute to the 15-9 victory.
“We played so hard,” said Guenther. “We gave it our all. We wanted it so badly.”
The Wildcats are looking to improve on their 10-13 overall record and 1-6 mark in 5A Jeffco last season.
“These girls were tested tonight,” Erickson said of her team, which also earned an early road win against Evergreen last week. “Green Mountain is an outstanding team. An outstanding program, but we just kept making changes and adjustments.”
A-West was able to prevent Green Mountain’s veteran outside hitter Ashlynn Reilly from taking the fifth set. Reilly — 255 kills a year ago — was the spark that gave Green Mountain the win in the first and fourth sets.
The 6-foot-3 senior had a busy day, as she also played for Green Mountain’s softball team before the volleyball game. Reilly started at third base, hitting 3 of 3 with a double and two singles before allowing a pinch run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
After the end of the fifth inning, Reilly hurriedly left the Green Mountain softball field to get ready for the Rams’ first home volleyball game.
“If we use her (Reilly) too much, teams are going to overload her, and that’s not what I want,” Green Mountain coach Melanie Watkins said of opponents focusing their defense on Reilly. “I have enough talent with those sophomores to adjust and help her.”
Erickson was pleased with the way her team performed against Reilly.
“She (Reilly) is a fantastic player,” Erickson said. “I told our girls that it’s fun to play against girls like that. You have to use that to get better.”
Green Mountain has won back-to-back conference titles for the first time. The Rams have compiled an 18-0 record the past two seasons in 4A Jeffco. However, Green Mountain was hit hard by graduation.
“It’s going to take a while, for sure,” Watkins said of building team chemistry this season. “I’ve got a lot of new young players. It’s like merging two teams from last year with this year.”
Dennis Pleuss is the sports information director for Jeffco Public Schools. For more Jeffco coverage, visit CHSAANow.com.
