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Hayden — If teams in the Western Slope League haven't noticed the Hayden High School volleyball squad yet, they should start taking note.

After avenging its only loss of the season Friday at West Grand, Hayden continued its torrid start with a 25-8, 25-12, 25-21 win against Vail Mountain School on Saturday.

"We're playing well, but I don't think we've reached our potential yet," first-year Hayden coach Greg Johnson said. "We're a good team, and I'm not afraid to say that right now. Our kids realize we're a good team and they're starting to play like that."

Hayden certainly showed its merits in both games Friday and Saturday.

Against West Grand, Hayden fell behind in each of the first two games, before battling back to win.

On Saturday, Hayden (9-1 overall, 4-0 in league play) only trailed once and was dominant throughout.

"We're struggling with injuries and illness," Vail Mountain School coach Mike Garvey said. "Whenever we started to play well and do some things, we'd shoot ourselves in the foot."

Hayden again got a balanced attack from all of its hitters. Holli Salazar led with eight kills, Rachael Koehler added seven kills and six blocks, and Kylee Sweetser had six kills.

"I think we are starting to come into our own," Johnson said. "We definitely have some areas where we can improve in. (Saturday) was the first time we served well as a team. It's just the little things. Our blocking and the defense have started to come around."

For Vail Mountain School and Garvey, the main concern now is just getting everyone back healthy. Garvey said the team hasn't had a full team at practice in three weeks and the results are showing on the court.

Still, Garvey said a big part of Saturday's loss was purely the play of Hayden. He said it's been fun to see Hayden start to put together a strong volleyball program.

"Our No. 1 thing now is to get everyone healthy," Garvey said. "It's hurting us consistency wise. : But it's been a joy playing (Hayden) twice. They've always had the athletes, and Greg is doing a great job teaching them how to play volleyball."

Hayden next plays at 5:30 p.m. Friday at Paonia. The team returns to play at 3 p.m. Saturday in Hayden against Meeker.

- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229 or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com