{"id":15898,"date":"2025-10-29T15:24:57","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T21:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-topples-ignacio-to-take-san-juan-basin-title\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:52:08","slug":"dolores-topples-ignacio-to-take-san-juan-basin-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-topples-ignacio-to-take-san-juan-basin-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores topples Ignacio to take San Juan Basin title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Dolores volleyball team celebrates their victory over Ignacio at the DHS Fieldhouse after clinching the league championship on Tuesday night. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOLORES \u2013 The San Juan Basin League couldn\u2019t have scripted a better regular-season finale.<\/p>\n

A playoff-like atmosphere welcomed the league\u2019s top two teams inside the Dolores High School Fieldhouse on Tuesday night, with both Ignacio and Dolores primed to take the SJBL crown. After the Bobcats dealt the Bears a 3-1 defeat in Ignacio on Sept. 23, the home-standing Bears knew they needed a sweep to win the tiebreaker \u2013 sets won in head-to-head matchups \u2013 and take the league title outright.<\/p>\n

The Bears delivered \u2013 taking all three seesaw sets to secure their 12th straight win since the Bobcats handed them their lone setback of the season.<\/p>\n

Dolores took the first two sets, 25-19 and 25-17, as pressure mounted for Ignacio to force a fourth and secure at least a share of the title. Dolores rallied from a 22-19 third-set deficit to take a 23-22 lead behind kills from junior Aubree Wyatt and her freshman sister Addyson.<\/p>\n

\"DHS
DHS junior Aubree Wyatt attacks the ball past Ignacio\u2019s Julianne Avila in a match against the Bobcats on Tuesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

After Ignacio knotted the score at 23 apiece on a kill from sophomore Alleah Neal, Addyson Wyatt hammered down an overpass from an Ignacio attack to lift the Bears back in front for good \u2013 then served up an ace on match point.<\/p>\n

Wild scenes of jubilation followed the final point, sealing DHS\u2019 first league title since they ran the SJBL table in 2019. In her first year at the helm, head coach Brianna Wyatt\u2019s squad now looks forward to hosting a regional tournament pod for the first time since that 2019 team qualified for the program\u2019s most recent visit to the Class 2A state tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a huge accomplishment for the girls,\u201d said Wyatt. \u201cI\u2019m so proud of the girls, our coaching staff is amazing \u2013 and we\u2019re all working well together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bobcats \u2013 riding an eight-match win streak into the title-deciding tilt \u2013 leaned on sophomore Alleah Neal to make life difficult on the Bears in their first encounter. Neal\u2019s blocking prowess became a focal point for Wyatt\u2019s group, prompting weeks of practice aimed at breaking down Ignacio\u2019s defensive alignment.<\/p>\n

\"DHS
DHS junior Madi Thornbrugh tries to fend off an attack from Ignacio\u2019s Lainee Bradley in a match against the Bobcats on Tuesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

From the opening points, it was clear: every point would be hard-earned. The Bears shifted their attack from left to center to right, keeping the Bobcats guessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time we saw them, we were too vanilla, and so we revamped our whole offense to diversify where we\u2019re attacking from,\u201d said Brianna Wyatt. \u201cWe asked our setters to swing the ball to every position so we can attack from anywhere and try to keep their defense out of sync.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ignacio answered with juniors Lainee Bradley and Reggi Gustafson finding holes in the DHS defense. The back-and-forth kept the opening set close until DHS built a 19-16 lead, prompting a timeout from Ignacio head coach Jennifer Seibel.<\/p>\n

Unfazed, Dolores closed the frame with a 6-3 run.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intensity shifted after the loss we had against them,\u201d said Aubree Wyatt, whose spark has made her one of the top hitters in the classification. \u201cWe had to focus on each of our individual jobs to be able to succeed as a team on the court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DHS
DHS junior Kendall Chavez lifts a set to one of her attacking teammates in a match against Ignacio on Tuesday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For Wyatt, that meant navigating one of the toughest defensive alignments the Bears had seen all season. \u201cI knew we were going up against good blockers, so I had to be versatile, change up my swings, and see where the court was,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Freshman Sophee Heaton, now a regular in the rotation, helped contain Ignacio threats alongside juniors Madi Thornbrugh and Akaia Edwards. The back line held firm as Ignacio tried to exploit defensive corners. Junior Kendall Chavez and freshman libero Layla Mitchell spent plenty of time on the hardwood denying easy points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to call a timeout to let our girls know that they had to expect the ball to come over on their first strike,\u201d said Wyatt. \u201cTheir setter Kelly [Sirios] is really good, and we had to be aware of her tendencies and when she was going to dump soft attacks \u2013 and I thought we did a really good job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis group of girls plays together as if we\u2019ve been playing together for years,\u201d added Aubree Wyatt. \u201cIt\u2019s like we haven\u2019t skipped a beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the regular season in the rearview mirror, the Bears await their regional assignment, which CHSAA will post Monday, Nov. 3. DHS is a lock to host a regional site with matches set for Nov. 7-8, aiming to qualify for the Class 2A state championships at the Denver Coliseum on Nov. 13-15. Ignacio hopes to hold onto a top-12 seed and give the league two regional host sites.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expected to be here,\u201d said Aubree Wyatt of the team\u2019s postseason goals. \u201cWe\u2019re looking to each other out on the court. No matter what everyone\u2019s role is on the team, we\u2019re all making each other better.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

capture league via tiebreaker, prepare to host first regional since 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15899,"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-15898","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\/15898","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=15898"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20744,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15898\/revisions\/20744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15898"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}