{"id":15986,"date":"2025-10-24T20:53:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T02:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-bears-break-through-sweep-telluride\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:53:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:53:33","slug":"dolores-bears-break-through-sweep-telluride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-bears-break-through-sweep-telluride\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores Bears break through, sweep Telluride"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores reserves \u2013 Akaia Edwards (3), Kacey Schmittel, Cheyanne Keim (10) and Taylor Erautt (4) \u2013 celebrate a point during SJBL action Thursday, Oct. 23, against Telluride at DHS. The Lady Bears swept THS in straight sets for their 19th win of the season. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Trailing two sets to none and down 8-2 early in Set 3, Telluride still believed Thursday night, Oct. 23, they had something in store for resurgent Class 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League heavyweight Dolores.<\/p>\n

Fueled by junior Ellarose Aplin\u2019s rare line kill from the outside hitter position and senior Lori Gleria\u2019s improbable tip shot that patched a broken play and dropped in for a point, the Lady Miners battled back to 11-9 \u2013 via a Gleria kill off DHS freshman Addyson Wyatt and an airmailed attack by DHS junior Aubree Wyatt.<\/p>\n

But after the younger Wyatt muscled down a kill and regained serve for the home team, the guests had no clue what was about to hit them \u2013 and effectively end their comeback bid.<\/p>\n

Back to the service line went junior Kendall Chavez. After Gleria gifted Dolores a point by zinging a cross-court try out of bounds, Chavez curved an incredible ace over THS\u2019 back row and into the corner nearest the bench. Telluride head coach Lorrie Mahoney quickly called timeout \u2013 but the Lady Bears were just getting started.<\/p>\n

Aubree Wyatt blasted a kill through Telluride\u2019s deep middle, and Chavez placed another untouched ace nearby. THS sophomore Teagan O\u2019Dell then netted a tip shot, and moments later Chavez fired a knuckleballing ace along the far sideline to where THS sophomore Hazel Noel had no chance to cleanly receive it. Gleria then smacked a one-handed free ball long after an Aubree Wyatt smash caused chaos on the Lady Miners\u2019 side, but Chavez served long \u2013 ending a match-breaking eight-point stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom missing a few serves previously, I had to get in my head and tell myself, like, \u2018Get these over and in!\u2019\u201d Chavez said.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores\u2019
Dolores\u2019 Aubree Wyatt (8) rises to attack against Telluride\u2019s Ellarose Aplin and Hazel Noel (7) during SJBL action Thursday, Oct. 23, at DHS. The Lady Bears swept THS in straight sets for their 19th win of the season. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores\u2019
Dolores\u2019 Sophee Heaton (5) stretches to joust Telluride\u2019s Hazel Noel (7) at the net during SJBL action Thursday, Oct. 23, at DHS. The Lady Bears swept THS in straight sets for their 19th win of the season. .Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cKendall, she\u2019s a gamer and will step up to the competition we have every time,\u201d head coach Brianna Wyatt said.<\/p>\n

With the score at 20-10, it was only a matter of time. Mahoney burned her last timeout after senior Delia Noel was blocked by DHS senior Taylor Erautt and junior Madi Thornbrugh, swelling Dolores\u2019 lead to 23-12. After play resumed, Aubree Wyatt downed a kill through Telluride\u2019s center to bring up match point.<\/p>\n

DHS freshman libero Layla Mitchell served a gem, hard enough that when THS senior Lillyann Mahoney received it, the ball ricocheted back over the net and Erautt hammered the overpass kill, sealing a 25-20, 25-13, 25-12 sweep \u2013 the scorching-hot Lady Bears\u2019 ninth straight win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d just finished a long road stretch \u2013 went to Caliche and went 3-and-0 up there \u2013 so having those wins under our belt kind of boosted us,\u201d Wyatt said, recalling the Oct. 18 Caliche Invitational in Logan County. \u201cBut it\u2019s still a lot of traveling and so just coming back and trying to regroup \u2026 I\u2019m just super-proud of the girls for coming together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely showed us, like, there\u2019s more teams and the competition gets harder the higher up you go,\u201d said Chavez.<\/p>\n

Set 1 took some doing. The Lady Miners overcame Dolores\u2019 strong start, fueled by match-opening kills by Chavez and Aubree Wyatt, and built a 12-8 lead, pressing Wyatt into calling timeout. After regaining a 14-13 lead, Dolores (19-1 overall; 10-1 SJBL, 6-1 2A SJBL) never trailed again.<\/p>\n

\"With
With Sophee Heaton (5) alongside, Dolores\u2019 Madi Thornbrugh (9) blocks Telluride\u2019s Delia Noel (10) during SJBL action Thursday, Oct. 23, at DHS. The Lady Bears swept THS in straight sets for their 19th win of the season. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"With
With teammate Aubree Wyatt (8) making room, Dolores libero Layla Mitchell (1) and Madi Thornbrugh keep a broken play alive during SJBL action Thursday, Oct. 23, against Telluride at DHS. The Lady Bears swept THS in straight sets for their 19th win of the season. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

One sequence hinted at whose match it was. Clinging to a 20-18 lead, Aubree Wyatt made a sprawling dig of an Aplin missile targeting the middle of DHS\u2019 back row, then scrambled to her feet to drill a kill, setting off a celebration Mahoney tried muting with a timeout.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely think plays like that really just get our energy and everything up. Our energy from those great plays shut down the other side,\u201d Chavez said.<\/p>\n

Aplin mashed down a kill moments later that Wyatt couldn\u2019t dig, but THS (13-5; 7-4 SJBL, 4-4 2A SJBL) got no closer than 22-20 before back-to-back Chavez kills and a passing error gave Dolores the opening set.<\/p>\n

The Lady Bears, helped by a 6-0 burst producing a 21-11 lead, then went wire-to-wire in Set 2, with an Aubree Wyatt tip off a diving Noel and a Thornbrugh block on senior Sonja Rikkers capping it off.<\/p>\n

Dolores was next to travel Oct. 24 to the San Luis Valley for a two-fer against Sanford (15-2 overall as of Oct. 23) and Crested Butte Community School (8-9) \u2013 both of the 2A Southern Peaks League \u2013 but results were unavailable at press time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to hold on, keep beating these tougher opponents and prove ourselves with the \u2018committee\u2019 that does all these numbers to make (postseason) all work,\u201d Wyatt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think going to Caliche really helped us prove to whoever\u2019s in charge, that we are competitors down here and that we have a tough league.\u201d<\/p>\n

The match to decide the SJBL\u2019s 2025 champ will conclude regular-season play for Dolores. Opposing them Oct. 28 inside the Lady Bears\u2019 lair will be Ignacio \u2013 the only squad to defeat DHS this fall. Standing 17-3 overall (10-0 SJBL, 7-0 2A SJBL) as of the 23rd, the Volleycats will be playing the third of four straight away dates \u2013 including an Oct. 25 trip to Dove Creek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores, Ignacio to meet for SJBL crown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15986","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=15986"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19952,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15986\/revisions\/19952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15986"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}