DENVER – Coming in as the top seed proved valuable on Day 1 of the girls volleyball state tournaments at the Denver Coliseum.
Fossil Ridge, Montrose, Alamosa, Simla and Merino all came in as the top-seeded teams in their respective classifications and each got a win to advance to the third round of their tournaments and are set to play at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
Of those five teams, only Alamosa dropped a set as the Mean Moose beat Sterling 3-1.
Fossil Ridge was dominant against Pine Creek in Class 5A. The Sabercats allowed just 18 total points in the first two sets before taking the third set 25-18.
They move on to face No. 5 Rampart, who scored a 3-1 win over No. 4 Legend.
Montrose put together a Western Slope sweep of Battle Mountain and celebrated setter Lilly Nelson’s 3,000th career set along the way. With Thompson Valley falling in regionals, only 4A is guaranteed to crown a new champion at this point in the postseason.
Alamosa dropped the second set 27-25 to Sterling, but rebounded quickly and cruised through the next two. The Mean Moose face The Village, the defending 3A state champion, in a third-round match on Friday at 2 p.m.
Simla grabbed a quick three-set win over Wiggins in 2A and Merino reached the third round of the 1A bracket with a sweep over Sargent.
The biggest upsets of the day came in 3A as No. 12 The Village handed No. 4 Forge Christian a 3-0 loss and No. 7 TCA beat No. 2 Resurrection Christian in five sets.
No. 6 Swink beat No. 3 Dolores 3-1 in 2A.
The top four seed all advanced to the third round in 4A and 1A.
The state tournaments resume at the Denver Coliseum at 8 a.m. on Friday. The winner of the third-round matches on the winner’s side of the brackets will automatically advance to the state semifinals which will be played on Saturday.
