LAFAYETTE — Dawson volleyball has been on a hot streak lately, and it doesn’t look like the Mustangs will be stopping anytime soon.
On Tuesday night on its home court, Dawson hosted Front Range Christian and took care of the Falcons in just three sets. That match, however, was far from easy. The Falcons made them work for every point, especially in the first and third sets. The Mustangs relied on their height to get the job done.
Going into Tuesday night’s contest, the now 5-2 Mustangs suffered their only losses to Class 2A’s sixth-ranked Dayspring Christian Academy and 3A’s fifth-ranked DSST: Montview. They sat in fourth place in the 1A/2A/3A Mile High League.
Senior middle blocker Dagney Javes was also leading the league in hitting percentage with a .480 success rate (68 kills on 123 attempts, with just nine errors). That trend continued against the Falcons as she finished with a team-high 15 kills and three blocks in the 25-17, 25-11, 25-21 decision. Senior libero/outside hitter Nicole Scribner earned five aces and senior team captain and setter Angelina Sala paced her offense with 27 assists.
Ball control played a major role in reining in Dawson’s offense and defense.
“With ball control, it really allows me as a setter to really run the offense and especially use Dagney, who’s our middle, and just kind of run her all the way around the court,” Sala said. “I think that once we get that pass there, then we can really do anything and we’re kind of unstoppable at that point.”
The Mustangs began the match playing a bit of catch-up with the Falcons, who led them point-for-point and maintained an advantage early on. Dawson didn’t get its first lead until the score read 10-9 in its favor.
That was the closest Front Range Christian got after that.
The Mustangs got a handle on their ball control and scored four consecutive points before the Falcons were able to respond again, and they kept the visitors at arm’s length from there on out.
Dawson took the first set, 25-17.
“I think every game is going to help them, every time they can touch a ball in practice playing competitively,” head coach Brandy Martin said. “I think they struggled a bit with intensity today. … Energy was a little bit lower than normal but they did push through and they played really hard.”
The second set looked much cleaner.
The Mustangs had clearly found their mojo halfway through the first game, and that theme played heavily into the second frame. Dawson controlled the tempo and the ball movement.
They led by as much as 18-5 at one point and looked as though they would steal the second set quickly and seamlessly.
But Front Range Christian wasn’t done yet.
The Falcons spent the next few minutes closing the gap and making the home team work harder for each point, but Dawson was just too dominant. The Mustangs won 25-11.
The third set started out much more competitively as the Falcons got more and more devious with their tipping and hitting game. The Mustangs took a late lead, 18-13, before the Falcons battled back to really make Dawson sweat.
In the end, however, Dawson proved to be too much for its visitors as it came out on top with a clean sweep and a third-set score of 25-21.
Now, the Mustangs will set their sights on Union Colony Prep, who they’ll visit on Thursday at 5 p.m. Sala believes her team can stay strong throughout the rest of the season and rely on its talents to take it far.
“We’re a scrappy team ourselves and I think playing a team who constantly gets it up is really challenging to our offense to make sure that we hit different holes and just find the gaps in their offense,” she said. “When, hopefully, we go to state, advance and play really good teams, that will just allow us an extra strategy to see the court in a different way, especially when a court is picking up so many balls.”
