{"id":123302,"date":"2013-11-06T23:04:09","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T06:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-complete-up-and-down-season\/"},"modified":"2013-11-06T23:04:09","modified_gmt":"2013-11-07T06:04:09","slug":"bears-complete-up-and-down-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-complete-up-and-down-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears complete up-and-down season"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dolores
Dolores volleyball players line up before a game as the starting lineup is announced.<\/span>Sam Green\/DOLORES STAR<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through all the ups and downs however, the Bears did show improvement, and with several young players returning next season, the future of prep volleyball in Dolores appears bright.<\/p>\n

WINS OVER MANCOS<\/p>\n

HIGHLIGHT YEAR<\/p>\n

Among the Bears 13 victories, none were more rewarding than those over the Mancos Bluejays.<\/p>\n

Over the course of three matches, the Bears won eight of nine sets from the Bluejays while completely dominating each match.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just sort of came together as a team,\u201d said Bears\u2019 sophomore Courtney Blackmer following her team\u2019s Oct. 22 victory over Mancos.<\/p>\n

LOSSES AT DISTRICT<\/p>\n

TOURNAMENT STING<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, the season\u2019s biggest disappointment came during the 2A District 3 tournament in Mancos on Oct. 26.<\/p>\n

Entering the tournament with a 13-6 record, the Bears seemed like a strong bet to earn a berth to the regionals.<\/p>\n

After stunning losses to Ignacio and Nucla however, the Bears\u2019 season ended on a sour note.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur passing wasn\u2019t there, and as a result, our sets were kind of off,\u201d said Bears head coach Gina Hollen of her team\u2019s quick exit.<\/p>\n

BLACKMER STARS<\/p>\n

FOR BEARS<\/p>\n

Individually speaking, no player had a bigger impact for the Bears in 2013 than sophomore Courtney Blackmer.<\/p>\n

Throughout the year, the tall hitter\u2019s ability to score from every spot on the court, while playing incredible defense, keyed several Bears\u2019 victories.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Blackmer) is definitely the most consistent hitter on the team,\u201d said Bears\u2019 head coach Gina Hollen of her standout sophomore.<\/p>\n

A PROMISING FUTURE<\/p>\n

Although the Bears will lose seniors Brianna Schwartz, Elana Bernholtz and Ali Umberger to graduation, the team should again be solid in 2014.<\/p>\n

Returning players Larissa Umberger, Taylor Elder and Blackmer figure to play staring roles for the Bears, who will also add a promising group of freshmen to next year\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to work on refining our skills,\u201d said Hollen. \u201cWe just need to learn to trust each other.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores volleyball players line up before a game as the starting lineup is announced.Sam Green\/DOLORES STAR Through all the ups and downs however, the Bears did show improvement, and with several young players returning next season, the future of prep volleyball in Dolores appears bright. WINS OVER MANCOS HIGHLIGHT YEAR Among the Bears 13 victories, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6362],"tags":[188],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-123302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-sports","tag-dolores-star"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123302"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=123302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}