Energized Lady Chargers keep Dakota Ridge at bay

Eight times Chatfield had set point  and eight times the Lady Chargers couldn’t convert. Yet, even though Chatfield was denied in the second set of its 5A Jeffco League home match with Dakota Ridge the outcome seemingly motivated the Lady Chargers.
“It definitely gave us energy. Honestly, it pulled us together as a team,” Chatfield senior Rachel Flores said after the Lady Chargers’ 25-21, 30-32, 25-18, 25-17 home victory Oct. 5. “It was great having the crowd we had for our team. Our fans are awesome. It felt good to be able to put it away.”
Chatfield (10-3, 4-0 5A Jeffco League) bounced back from the minor hiccup to win its sixth straight match. The Lady Chargers, led by Megan Bohn’s 14 kills and 12 digs, never trailed again after running off nine straight points early in the third set to take a 12-6 lead. Sydney Lecker added 13 kills, while Flores had 11 and a team-high 25 assists, along with Amelia Metzler.
Dakota Ridge (5-10, 1-3), which has dropped three of its last four matches, did, however, win the second set — the first one allowed by the Lady Chargers in their past five matches — thanks to some perseverance. The Lady Eagles rallied from down 24-22 to score back-to-back points to tie the score. Then Dakota Ridge fended off defeat six more times before junior Jae Ferrin’s set-clinching kill.
“It was definitely important and instrumental toward the whole match. It was what we needed to know that we can do it and believe in ourselves,” Ferrin said. “We just didn’t follow that thru in set three.”
Things started out fine in the third for the Lady Eagles, who won six of the set’s first nine points. But Chatfield found its groove, winning 22 of the next 34.
Flores had a reason for why the Lady Chargers were able to rebound.
“Probably our errors honestly. I feel like in the second set we made a lot of mental errors. In the third, we came back strong mentally and pushed through and got the win,” Flores said.
It was more of the same in the decisive fourth set. With the set tied at 4-all, Chatfield went on a 6-0 run to pull away. The lead eventually grew to as much as nine points before the Lady Chargers put it away.
“We just need to be scoring more points and not depending on the other team to just give us points,” Ferrin said. “We need to be more aggressive.”