{"id":16656,"date":"2025-09-05T20:25:56","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T20:25:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-volleyball-slips-in-league-opener-against-telluride\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:59:17","slug":"dove-creek-volleyball-slips-in-league-opener-against-telluride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-volleyball-slips-in-league-opener-against-telluride\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek volleyball slips in league opener against Telluride"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek junior Kaybree Smith passes out of a tricky situation, with senior Allex Williams (4) and junior Ariana Rockwell (15) in close support during the Lady Bulldogs' 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League opener Sept. 2 against Telluride.
\n Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Trailing two sets in their Class 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League opener on Sept. 2, Dove Creek closed to 14-12 in Set 3 before a lift violation gave Telluride a point and put senior Lori Gleria on serve.<\/p>\n

Gleria held serve for seven straight points, with aces against Dove Creek junior Mykaela Fury and senior libero Kaylen Trejo, plus two disruptive serves.<\/p>\n

After netting her eighth serve, Dove Creek regained possession down trailing 22-13, but senior Allex Williams also netted her serve. Telluride junior Ellarose Aplin then blocked senior Audrey Jennings and stuffed a Dover Dove Creek overpass to seal Telluride\u2019s 25-20, 25-14, 25-13 sweep inside the DawgHouse gymnasium.<\/p>\n

\u201cLori had an awesome (service) run that \u2026 really tied us (together) in the clutch,\u201d said Aplin, who\u2019d secured Set 2 with a 1-v-1 block of Fury. \u201cAnd I thought that was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to be a better defensive team,\u201d Williams said. \u201cIt\u2019s been slow progress. \u2026 But I feel like we all have a good relationship and we\u2019re all working pretty hard to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Hadley Hatfield serves during the Bulldogs' 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League opener Sept. 2 against Telluride.
\n Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re rebuilding,\u201d said Fury. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to work on our mental state\u2026as a team, and the chemistry\u2019s just building.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dove Creek (1-6, 0-1 SJBL) led only three times, totaling scoring just seven points. In Set 1, Dove Creek stayed within four of Telluride (3-1, 1-0 SJBL) before Telluride reached set point at 24-19. Williams, playing with a thumb injury, landed a kill to keep the Bulldogs alive.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, she missed her next swing after Telluride senior Tori Sanders\u2019 push disrupted the setup. DCHS struck first in Set 2 with senior Hadley Hatfield serving, but kills by Gleria and senior Delia Noel put THS ahead. The Bulldogs got no closer than 8-7 before two aces by junior libero Ford Fenton prompted a timeout.<\/p>\n

Trailing 12-7, Dove Creek closed to 13-10 before errors and a roll shot by senior Sonja Rikkers doubled the deficit. An ace by THS sophomore Hazel Noel extended the lead to 21-13, and head coach Barry used her second timeout.<\/p>\n

Telluride kept control. The younger Noel set her sister for a kill, and Dove Creek junior Ariana Rockwell was called for a net violation \u2013 also injuring her ankle and exiting the match. With Williams and Hatfield already limited by knee injuries, Dove Creek couldn\u2019t afford another setback.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have time to recover before visiting Nucla on Tuesday, Sept. 9. As of press time, the Lady Mustangs were 3-3 ahead of their Sept. 4 match at Dolores (4-0).<\/p>\n

\"Dove
Dove Creek junior Kaybree Smith passes out of a tricky situation, with senior Allex Williams (4) and junior Ariana Rockwell (15) in close support during the Lady Bulldogs' 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League opener Sept. 2 against Telluride.
\n Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebuilding Dove Creek is swept by Telluride<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[80,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dove-creek","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16656","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=16656"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20320,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16656\/revisions\/20320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16656"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}