Lady Indians head to Longmont for regionals tournament

MONTROSE—Three games separate the Lady Indians volleyball team from their ultimate goal— earning a birth in the Colorado High School State Volleyball Championships.

MHS will hit the road this weekend and travel to Longmont for the 4A Regional Volleyball Tournament. This tournament has one pool with three teams in the pool. No. 13 seeded Montrose, No. 4 seed Longmont, No. 5 seed Lewis-Palmer and No. 12 seed Sterling. The Lady Indians have to finish in one of the top two spots in their pool to advance to the state championships in Denver next weekend. All three schools the Indians will face have a combined record of 50-19.

MHS head coach Shane Forrest believes her team is poised to make a run though regionals despite being disappointed with their lower seed.

“We were a little disappointed in the No. 13 seed that we received,” Forrest said. “But with only 16 teams left in the state it really doesn’t matter what seed you are. Every game is going to be tough.”

Forrest said all four teams they will face this weekend have playoff experience and have played in these kinds of situations before.

As for the Lady Indians, they are no strangers to experience. All four seniors on the team have played in the regional and sate tournament since they were sophomores. 

“Our seniors have been their (regionals) two years in a row and their experience will be valuable this weekend,” Forrest said. “The seniors have been working hard on building the younger players confidence up, to better prepare them for the challenge. Everybody on this team is hungry to get another chance to play in the state tournament.”

Montrose has set a goal for themselves this weekend. Forrest said that if her team can finish 2-1 through three games, it would give them a decent opportunity to advance to state. But she was quick to point out that 2-1 won’t guarantee anything, but it would simply give them a shot.

“We need to play consistent and steady volleyball,” she said. “If we play hard and play our best volleyball of the season I think we’ll be fine.”

The Lady Indians first match is against Longmont (17-6) which begins at 9:15 a.m. Saturday.