After winning the Intermountain League and then making some noise in the 3A state championships, five Bayfield High School volleyball players and its head coach were recently honored by the league.
Seniors Annie Fusco and Emily Nelson both earned first-team all-conference honors from the Intermountain League.
Senior Sage Killough and junior Kenesea Byrd scored all-conference second team honors.
Junior Myrah Abdallah-Boehm earned an all-conference honorable mention.
Head coach Terene Foutz, meanwhile, shared coach of the year with Centauri’s Ali Miller.
Montezuma-Cortez’s Avery Wright was named IML’s player of the year.
Fusco, an outside hitter for Bayfield, led the IML in kills and led the entire Class 3A with 475 unreturnable spikes. She was a force at the net, enabling wins over ranked 4A teams this season, including Niwot, Montrose and Durango, as well as 5A Coronado. In the postseason, she led Bayfield in kills versus Patriot League teams Valley and Eaton.
Fusco has been selected to the Colorado Coaches of Girls Sports All-State Team, and will participate in the CCGS all-state games this weekend in Fort Collins.
Fusco also was named AVCA national player of the week for Oct. 11-17 after a 75-kill performance in three IML matches.
Nelson completed her third year on varsity, the first two years starting at libero. Emily converted to outside hitter this year and was a top 5 performer in both kills and digs. She was also top eight in serving aces.
Killough led the IML in assists with 851, second-highest amount of assists in all of 3A volleyball. She led Bayfield’s offense through historic wins, including a 2-0 match sweep of Centauri to win the IML Championship outright, and also an ouster of the defending 3A state champion, Eaton High School, at the state tournament.
Byrd led the IML in kill efficiency. She was the IML’s top blocker, breaking the 70-block marker.
Libero Abdallah-Boehm led the IML with 399 digs on the season. She was also an instrumental serve receive passer, consistently placing Bayfield at the net in a tough IML conference.
Foutz led the Wolverines to an IML championship with a 7-1 league record. Bayfield then went on to host, and win, the 3A Region 12 championship over Valley and Colorado Academy.
Seeded No. 12 out of 12 teams at the 3A state championships, Bayfield went 3-2 at the tournament with wins over No. 5 Liberty Common, No. 7 Eaton and No. 11 Alamosa. `
The IML first team also included Wright of Cortez, Hennesy Mortensen and Marrisa Johnson of Centauri and Malia Tuoti Mariner and Charli Higham of Alamosa.
Also earning second-team honors were Avery Mobley and Morgan Ortega of Alamosa, Abbey Smith and Kailyn Polzin of Centauri and Pricilla Howard of Pagosa Springs.
Dec Beckman of Cortez and Kyra Torrez of Pagosa also earned honorable mentions.
