Senior setter Natasha Ray doesn’t necessarily have to be in the team huddle during a timeout, as was the case Friday afternoon when Cheyenne Mountain was playing Lewis-Palmer, to know what Indians head coach David Barkley is going to say.
So instead of being with her teammates, Ray was taking a break at the water cooler.
“I usually can tell what (Coach) Barkley says, but I just needed water,” Ray said. “I was so tired out there. I felt dehydrated.”
It was her kill that gave the defending Class 4A state champions possession late in the third game of their second pool-play match at the Denver Coliseum.
She followed that with eight consecutive service points, as the Indians scored a 25-17, 25-18, 25-18 win to go 2-0 on the first day of the 4A state tournament. Top-seeded Cheyenne Mountain (25-0) opened the tournament with a three-set win over Broomfield.
Against Lewis-Palmer, the Indians went on an 11-1 run in the first game and methodically took care of business in the second. But it wasn’t easy, as evidenced by Lewis-Palmer’s 17-15 lead in the third game before Cheyenne Mountain ran off 10 of the match’s final 11 points.
But when you’re coming off the school’s first state championship and aiming for a repeat, everyone is going to be after you.
“We have a huge target on our backs from last year,” Ray said. “All we have to do this year is to go out there and play our game. Go out there every point and do it as a team.”
In the other pool, second-seeded Mullen (25-3) and third-seeded Roosevelt (27-1) advanced to today’s semifinals.
