Merino High School volleyball earns top nod for 1A tournament

Will face the winner of Dove Creek and La Veta game

Merino volleyball hardly showed any weakness during the regular season and, in doing so, put itself in the best position to defend its 2021 Class 1A state championship.

Earlier this week, the Rams earned the No. 1 overall seed for the upcoming state tournament, which is set to begin on Thursday at the Denver Coliseum. That means they’ll get a bye during the first round and will face off with the winner of No. 8 Dove Creek and No. 9 La Veta in the next one.

The Rams haven’t seen either team yet this year.

Dove Creek enters the tournament with a perfect 25-0 record with just five sets lost, but hasn’t seen nearly the level of competition that Merino has. The Bulldogs have four ladies who can step up to the net to take the lead on attacking, being led by Kalie Gatlin (203 kills), Trista Barnett (188 kills), Ralynn Hickman (184 kills) and Lexi Gray (161 kills). Those four excel on the serve with 53-plus aces each, and Gray leads the defense at the net with 49 blocks. The Bulldogs have solid back-row defense across the board.

La Veta, on the other hand, is a little more limited with its talent.

Kendyl Eddleman has taken charge on the attack with 391 kills, followed by 234 kills from Mattie Bjorum. Bjorum leads the serving game with 54 aces, but three other ladies have the ability to get the ball to drop off the serve as well. Marianna Delacruz and Eddleman lead the way with the net defense with 39 and 38 blocks, respectively, as Kylee Guadagnoli takes the reins from the back row with 401 digs. Two other ladies have the ability to contribute a high number of digs as well.

The Rams will begin their postseason campaign on Thursday at 2 p.m.