Season ends with 4A regional losses
Mullen finishes 12-13, goes out in first postseason round.
Injuries are part of the deal in sports. Just ask those associated with the Mullen volleyball program. The injury bug not only bit the Mustangs during the 2018 season, it just about devoured them.
“That’s one of the biggest stories how our season ended, unfortunately,” Mustangs second-year head coach Jeff Oliver said.
“That’s one of the biggest stories how our season ended, unfortunately,” Mustangs second-year head coach Jeff Oliver said.
All told, Mullen ended 12-13 overall. The Mustangs also were 2-5 in the Class 5A-based Centennial League. They were able to advance to the 4A regional rounds, but went out in straight sets to Niwot and Thomas Jefferson.
“We were down four starters,” Oliver said. “But I still thought we had some really good play even being down those girls. A lot of them were close matches and we were still competing.”
Plus, the Mustangs again faced a demanding schedule. In addition to the strong league teams such as Cherokee Trail, Cherry Creek and Eaglecrest, Mullen took on the likes of Colorado Academy, Palmer Ridge, Silver Creek, Arapahoe, which is another league member, Coronado, Doherty and Silver Creek.
“Look at our league,” Oliver said on Saturday while attending the state tournament at the Denver Coliseum. “Down here at state, Eaglecrest and Cherokee Trail are in the top four (of 5A). We played a lot of really good teams this year.”
In addition to the injuries that included losing high-end team members such as Morgan Wills and Anna Murdy, the Mustangs will head into 2019 without graduates Wills, Murdy, Becky Brazelton, Bri Gonzalez, Makenna Guthrie and Liz Zapien.
However, Oliver said, the good thing about having injuries, if there is one, is additional players earn experience that they probably wouldn’t have been able to attain, as he looked toward the future.
“We have some other kids who got additional playing time to handle some of those rolls,” Oliver said. “I think next year we should still be pretty good. Other kids got some experience and that should help them. We’ll just need some kids to step up.”
As for the program’s lower levels, Oliver said “they’re pretty good. We did better this year than last year and we’re starting to build up the level of play that we want.”
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