The Mancos volleyball team is still establishing its identity.
At times, they will go on runs that include highlight plays like Jessica Gutierrez running into the bleachers to save a ball, Nicole Hess sneaking a ball over the net by hitting it backward over her head, and Taryn Gordanier slamming down spikes.
But then they'll follow a string of great plays with a stream of errors.
Against Ignacio on Thursday, the Blue Jays won game one (25-19) before dropping three straight.
Trailing 15-21 in game two, Ignacio errors helped propel a Mancos comeback to close the gap to one, 22-23. However, Ignacio fought off the charge to win 25-22.
The Blue Jays found themselves down early again in game three, but with senior Taryn Gordanier serving, they went on a 6-0 run to take a lead, 12-10.
The rest of the game was back-and-forth, with the teams exchanging leads, but errors down the stretch gave the game back to Ignacio for a 29-27 win.
Mancos put up less of a fight in the fourth and final game, losing 13-25 and dropping the match three games to one.
After their loss to Ignacio on Thursday, the Blue Jays traveled to Norwood on Friday to take on the Mavericks.
Mancos again dropped the match in four games (16-25, 16-25, 25-22, 13-25).
Head coach Brittany Lang understands that her young team will take time to mesh, and she believes that their confidence is key to their success.
"Volleyball is such a head-case sport," Lang said after the match with Ignacio. "And when we're down, faces go down, shoulders go down, body language goes down."
In order to help keep her players focused and build confidence, she has the team narrow in on short segments of each game.
"We do like mini-games," she said. "We always try to win mini-games, like the first to five or the first to ten."
Lang has also noticed the flashes of brilliance followed by errors, and her goal is to help the team find consistency.
"I mean, that's the goal of volleyball," she said. "To be more consistent. And right now, we are consistently making a lot of errors."
