ALAMOSA – The third-ranked Alamosa High School volleyball team played its first two home games of the season this week.

On Tuesday, the Mean Moose defeated Pueblo County in three sets, and on Thursday they opened the Intermountain League season by hosting Pagosa Springs, and they too won the match in three sets.

Alamosa def. Pueblo County

The Mean Moose got off to a good start against the Hornets and carried that momentum throughout the match as Alamosa won in three straight sets.

The scores were 25-11, 25-19 and 25-10.

“We’re working on getting solid at every position,” said Alamosa coach Annie Mortensen. “We made some line-up changes yesterday and the girls tested each other, tested me, and that’s going to get us pretty far this season.”

The Mean Moose started strong by scoring the first 10 points of the first set. Aubrey Rothermich had five kills in the run and Kyla Hawkins had two.

The Hornets scored two straight points, but Alamosa answered by scoring four in a row.

Alamosa increased the lead to 21-6 before Pueblo County closed to within 23-11. But Laci Christensen slammed a kill, and Rothermich served up an ace to give the Mean Moose a 25-11 win.

The Hornets scored the first point of the second set for their only lead of the entire match. But once again the Mean Moose had an answer by running off four straight points. Pueblo County came back to tie the score at 6-6 before Alamosa had another 4-0 run to take a 10-6 lead.

The Hornets narrowed their deficit to 10-9, but the Mean Moose went on a 6-2 rally for a 16-11 lead.

The Hornets got as close as 16-13, but Alamosa went on to win the second set 25-19.

The Mean Moose had another fast start in the third set by scoring the first nine points.

Alamosa increased the lead to 24-7 before Pueblo County made one last charge by scoring three straight points.

A Hornet serving error gave the win to the Mean Moose 25-10.

Ashlyn Rice led the Alamosa offense with 36 assists. Rothermich was the top hitter with 17 kills, followed by Kyla Hawkins with nine, Christensen with eight, and Kadie Hawkins with six.

Addison Rice led in service aces with two. Christensen and Rothermich each had one.

Alamosa def. Pagosa Springs

The Mean Moose got their Intermountain League season going in the right direction by defeating Pagosa Springs on Thursday.

The scores were 25-16, 25-8 and 25-10.

“I think we started off a little slow,” Mortensen said. “But we came back, regrouped and got it going. I’m happy with the first league game.”

Alamosa started fast by scoring the first three points of the first set. But the Pirates went on a 6-1 run to take a 6-4 lead.

The Mean Moose answered by scoring four in a row to take an 8-6 lead. After a brief Pagosa side out, Alamosa went on a 5-1 rally to increase its lead to 13-8.

The Pirates closed to within 13-10 before the Mean Moose went on a 3-1 run for a 16-11 advantage. Pagosa again closed to within a three-point deficit at 16-13, but Alamosa had another 4-0 run to push its lead to 20-13.

The Pirates got as close as 20-15, but the Mean Moose scored five of the final six points to take the first set 25-16.

Pagosa scored the first point of the second set, but Alamosa scored four consecutive points to take a 4-1 lead. The Pirates then went on a 4-1 rally to deadlock the score at 5-5.

The Mean Moose again ran off four in a row, and after another brief Pagosa side out, Alamosa scored eight unanswered points to increase its lead to 17-6.

The Pirates had another brief side out, but the Mean Moose scored eight of the final nine points to win the second set 25-8.

Alamosa had another strong start in the third set by scoring the first six points. The teams then exchanged side outs before Pagosa closed to within 9-5.

But the rest of the set was all Mean Moose as they scored 16 of the final 19 points to take the third set 25-10.

Ashlyn Rice was again Alamosa’s offensive leader with 30 assists. Rothermich again led the hitting game with 13 kills, followed by Kyla Hawkins with 10, Kadie Hawkins with seven, Chridstensen with six, and Ashlyn Rice with five.

Alamosa served up 10 aces. Rothermich led the way with three, followed by Ashlyn Rice, Addison Rice and Christensen each with two, and Jaelin Garcia with one.

Freshmen filling in nicely

The Mean Moose started two freshmen in key positions in setter Ashlyn Rice and hitter Kyla Hawkins.

“I have two freshmen starting and one coming in on the back row (Egypt Holman),” Mortensen said. “They’ve worked hard to have this success. We had a very tough summer schedule, so they had a lot of that to get ready for this level of competition.”

What’s next

Alamosa (6-1, 1-0) will travel to Delta today. The first set begins at approximately 1 p.m.

“I think it will be a game where we need to focus and continue to get better,” Mortensen said.