BLANCA— The trip was worth it. Creede’s Miners traveled 92 miles for their volleyball match with the Panthers on Friday afternoon.
Entering this match Sierra Grande (1-4-0) has been fighting to get above .500. A loss to open the season was matched by their victory over Manzanola.  Since then it was back-to-back defeats at the hands of Las Animas and McClave. Enter Creede (1-0-0), last year the Miners were a respectable 17-8 and missed the post season. This year they had a win over DeBeque in their pocket entering their meeting with Sierra Grande.
Friday afternoon it was Creede that struck first taking control of the first set utilizing Sophia Borchers at the net to curb Sierra Grande’s offense and produce their own. The Miners paced the Panthers all the way to the 25-14 finish.
Sierra Grande answered back in the second set with Alexa Ontiveros having a productive set. Ontiveros would lead Sierra Grande  in the match with 9 kills. The Panthers looked like a different team from the first set running away with a 25-10 win.
Sierra Grande produced a hot start in the third set and looked to be in control with a 8-4 lead. A side out lead to an 8-point rally for Creede that flipped the game and completely shattered any momentum the Panthers had built. From there Sierra Grande chased Creede to a 25-18 finish to tilt the series in Creede’s favor 2-1.
The Miners suffered the loss of Brooke Gammill early in the fourth set; she would not return. Leading 14-10 Creede broke the fourth set wide open with another 8-point rally to bring a rather quick conclusion to the fourth set 25-15.
Behind Ontiveros Abby Corona and Brooklyn Sandoval placed second on the team in kills with four each. The team lead in blocks also went to Ontiveros with one.
It wasn’t all bad for the Panthers as they would have some success in the second half of their double-header. The Panthers would blank visiting Kim-Branson three sets to none. Ontiveros would once again lead in kills with 10 and blocks with 2.
 Sierra Grande is scheduled to host Center Saturday Sept. 8 at noon. Also on Saturday Creede will hope to repeat the first game of the season’s success when they host DeBeque. at 3 p.m.