Volleyball: Aspen heads to regionals against Cedaredge, Peak to Peak
First game is 10 a.m. Saturday in Lafayette
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
The fall has been about playing for Lindsay Waldeck, the lone senior on the Aspen High School volleyball team. But with regional play arriving on Saturday, first-year AHS coach David Chadbourne is ready to pivot toward the future and get his young roster invaluable experience on the big stage.
“We’ve had the motto of ‘Do it for Lindsay’ all season long, and we’ve been riding that. The girls have so much fun with that mindset,” he said. “But the reality is, the sophomores are going to have a couple more shots at this, so it’s going to be fun for them to get this experience and, hopefully, pick up a couple of wins.”
Aspen (12-10 overall) made the 36-team regional field as the No. 28 seed and will be at the bottom of their Class 3A Region 9 pod with No. 16 Cedaredge (16-6) and No. 9 Peak to Peak (18-5), the region host. The three teams will all play each other once, with a lone winner advancing to the 12-team state tournament.
First on deck for the Skiers will be the Pumas of Peak to Peak. The teams have a mutual opponent from the regular season, with Aspen losing 2-0 (25-22, 25-23) to Bennett at a tournament on Sept. 7, and Peak to Peak beating Bennett, 2-1 (18-25, 25-13, 15-13), on Sept. 14.
Aspen’s biggest challenge will be matching up with Peak to Peak senior superstar Alexandra Eschmeyer, a 6-foot-5 middle hitter who will make life challenging around the net. The hope may be in that volleyball isn’t Eschmeyer’s primary sport — she’s a five-star recruit in basketball who is committed to playing collegiately at Stanford. She even won FIBA World Cup gold playing for the U.S. U17 national team.
“They seem to compete harder against teams that push them,” Chadbourne said of his own players, knowing they will indeed be pushed this weekend. “They have a really strong middle that we are going to have to try to shut down. But if we can do that, I think we will be successful.”
Cedaredge is an interesting matchup as it will be a rare intra-league contest within regional play. Gunnison won the 3A Western Slope League this fall, going undefeated in WSL play, but tying for second place were Cedaredge and Aspen, each going 8-2. The Bruins owned the tiebreaker due to a 3-1 win over Aspen on Sept. 19 in their lone meeting this season. Set scores from that day were 25-20, 25-20, 22-25, 25-22.
“They are a good match, but that’s one of those we want to get back,” Chadbourne said of Cedaredge. “We are looking forward to that one the most, because I think we were pretty evenly matched. The girls just kind of underperformed.”
Saturday’s regional games will be played in Lafayette, north of Denver, where Peak to Peak is located. Aspen and Peak to Peak will play first at 10 a.m., followed by Cedaredge vs. Aspen, and concluding with Peak to Peak against Cedaredge.
Last fall, under former coach Brittany Zanin, the Skiers were the No. 23 seed in regional play, going 0-2 with losses to No. 2 Jefferson Academy and No. 35 Wellington. In many ways, Aspen’s lower seed this season could be beneficial as they avoid one of the top-five seeds early on.
“When you look at these three teams on paper and who we’ve all played and what the records are, I think we are pretty evenly matched,” Chadbourne said. “So, I think it’s going to be a fun weekend of volleyball.”
Other regional fields to watch include No. 35 Coal Ridge heading to No. 2 Platte Valley with No. 23 Forge Christian, and No. 5 Gunnison hosting No. 20 The Vanguard School and No. 32 North Fork. Eaton is the top overall seed going into regionals.
Basalt (5-15) finished No. 50 in the final seeding index through CHSAANow.com and did not make the regional field. Same goes for No. 42 Roaring Fork, finishing 9-13 overall.
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