The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

A one-match sweep in the Region 1 Tournament has sealed a State berth for the Fleming Lady Wildcats. The pool play tournament originally listed three teams, but positive COVID cases forced forfeiture for the 16th ranked Lady Pirates from Cotopaxi.

With Cotopaxi out, Fleming hosted a one-match Regional tournament which brought the number 24 seeded La Veta Lady Redskins to town.

The Lady Redskins came within eight points of the top-ranked Lady Wildcats in the opening set of play on Saturday, May 1. Fleming finished that game on top 25-17.

The home team took sets two and three by much larger margins for the sweep. La Veta fell to the Lady Wildcats in set two, 25-7, and in set three, 25-12.

The single-match victory gives the Lady Wildcats a Region 1 Championship title and a shot at defending their State Championship.

The Lady Wildcat hitters put 38 kills on the floor in the three-set contest. Sophomore Kally Kirkwood led the group with nearly half of that total at 17 kills. Junior Whitney Chintala also hit double digits in the kill category with 12. Senior setter Kendyl Kirkwood and sophomore Maddy Harms added eight and one kill, respectively.

From her setter's position, Kendyl Kirkwood assisted the Lady Wildcat hitters with 28 sets. She also added 11 digs from the back row in her final volleyball match on the Lady Wildcat home court.

Sophomore Lexi Schaefer led the defensive efforts from the back row with 13 digs in the match. Sophomore Laney Schliesser and freshman Madi Serrato added nine digs apiece.

Harms took the team-high defensive appearance at the net with two solo blocks. Kally Kirkwood and Chintala each added one solo block.

From behind the serving line, Harms led her team in aces with four. Kendyl Kirkwood followed with three aces; serving 100 percent after 16 serves in the contest.

Junior Sam Pope, Schliesser and Chintala each served over one ace. Pope and Schliesser went 100 percent from behind the service line.

The Lady Wildcats received 32 serves on the day and collectively made just two serve-receive errors. Chintala led the team with 13 receives; Schaefer followed with nine. Madi Serrato put five serves into play and junior Zoey Vandenbark added another three receives.

This year's State Tournament bracket features eight teams - the top team from each Region. All five classes of Colorado girls' volleyball are set to take the court at the Broadmoor World Arena in Colorado Springs next week for a single elimination tournament.

The Lady Wildcats are set to make their debut appearance of the 1A State Tournament on Wednesday, May 12 when they face off with the number-eight ranked Otis Lady Bulldogs at 11 a.m.

Otis advanced out of Region 6 following a single-match victory over Weldon Valley. The other team in that Regional bracket, Springfield, was forced to forfeit due to COVID.

The winner of Wednesday's opening match will advance to the Final Four on Thursday and will face off with the winner of a match between number four Simla and number five Stratton/Liberty. That Final Four match is set for 8 a.m.

The winner of the Final Four match advances to the State Championship at 5 p.m. on Thursday against the overall winner from the bottom half of the bracket. Teams listed on the lower half of the bracket include number two Wiley, number three Merino, number six Briggsdale and number seven Sangre de Cristo. The Lady Wildcats have seen three of this year's 1A State qualifiers throughout the regular season. They swept Wiley and Briggdale and suffered one of their two losses to Merino.