{"id":15672,"date":"2025-11-15T16:59:22","date_gmt":"2025-11-15T23:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-bow-out-of-volleyball-state-tournament-after-spectacular-season\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:50:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:50:30","slug":"bears-bow-out-of-volleyball-state-tournament-after-spectacular-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-bow-out-of-volleyball-state-tournament-after-spectacular-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears bow out of volleyball state tournament after spectacular season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores junior Aubree Wyatt drills a kill past Swink junior Emma Gacnik (11) on Day 1 of the 2025 CHSAA Class 2A State Volleyball Championships inside the Denver Coliseum. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DENVER \u2013 Two days and thirteen sets on the Denver Coliseum floor showed the state what everyone in Southwest Colorado already knew \u2013 this Dolores volleyball team isn\u2019t going to back down from a challenge. Making their return visit to the 2A state tournament after a five-year hiatus, the Bears also showcased their intent to be regulars in the season\u2019s final weekend for years to come.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores junior Madi Thornbrugh (9) blocks against Swink junior Daisy Heberlie (6) on Day 1 of the 2025 CHSAA Class 2A State Volleyball Championships inside the Denver Coliseum. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DHS (25-3) closed out the program\u2019s winningest season with a trio of heart-pumping matches, topping Sanford, 3-1, after dropping their opening match against Swink by the same margin. With a date in Saturday\u2019s final sprint to the championship on the line, the Bears battled back from a 2-1 deficit against Sedgwick County to force a decisive fifth game, only to fall to the Cougars 22-25, 25-17, 25-19, 23-25, 15-12 to see their season come to an end.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores freshman Sophee Heaton (5) helps block against Swink senior Taylor Mendenhall on Day 1 of the 2025 CHSAA Class 2A State Volleyball Championships inside the Denver Coliseum. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Bears, entering the tournament as the No. 3 seed after capturing the San Juan Basin League and 2A Region 3 titles, provided plenty of drama in the pressure-cooker atmosphere, riding the tsunamis of emotion that accompanied major rallies in each of their three matches. In their finale against No. 7 Sedgwick County, the Bears landed the first big punch as they broke a six-all tie in the opening set with a string of eight points in a ten-point span to build a 14-8 lead. DHS withstood a late charge from the Cougars to claim the early momentum, only to watch SedgCo wrestle it back with a series of intense rallies to take the second and third sets.<\/p>\n

It looked for a moment like the Bears might run out of steam \u2013 trailing 15-11 in the fourth set \u2013 but head coach Brianna Wyatt\u2019s team found another gear, ripping off six of the next eight points to tie up the set, before leaping out in front. After icing the set, 25-23, Dolores stormed out to a 5-1 lead in the last frame. However, the Cougars answered the bell to knot the score at nine, then posted a quick flurry to cement their advantage and pull out the win.<\/p>\n

\"With
With junior Akaia Edwards (3) assisting, Dolores freshman Addyson Wyatt (7) blocks Swink junior Kashlyn Blasingame (15) on Day 1 of the 2025 CHSAA Class 2A State Volleyball Championships inside the Denver Coliseum. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Bears had advanced to play the Cougars in the second round of the elimination bracket courtesy of their second win over Sanford this season, navigating a series of razor-thin margins to beat the Mustangs 25-20, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23 for Dolores\u2019 first state tournament victory in at least two decades. In their opener against Swink, Dolores trailed 18-8 in the third set, but battle back with an incredible run to snatch the set and force a fourth frame \u2013 but ultimately the Lions held on for the win that sent DHS into the elimination bracket.<\/p>\n

Dolores closes out their fantastic run while offering their varsity seniors the program\u2019s first winning season during their four years. It also served as an introduction to the state tournament for a large wave of rising talent, including deep classes of 2027 and 2029 that appear to make the Bears a team with staying power over the coming years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1-2 record in team\u2019s first state trip since 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15672","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=15672"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19781,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15672\/revisions\/19781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15672"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}