{"id":26135,"date":"2024-08-16T14:52:47","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T14:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-volleyball-ready-to-bump-up-their-game\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:33:45","slug":"panthers-volleyball-ready-to-bump-up-their-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-volleyball-ready-to-bump-up-their-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers volleyball ready to bump up their game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Karlee
Karlee Hubbs spikes the ball Friday night against Alamosa. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 If new M-CHS had hoped to see a competitive edge from her team heading into the fall, several days of intense team tryouts will certainly paint a picture of what\u2019s to come for the Panthers this season.<\/p>\n

Constrained by allowable roster sizes and travel limitations, one of first-year head coach Danielle Waltman\u2019s first tasks is selecting a roster from four dozen ambitious student-athletes \u2013 a process that brings out a tenacity right from the opening practices that the first-year head coach hopes will carry over into the season ahead.<\/p>\n

M-CHS returns a roster that sports plenty of varsity experience from their 3-20 campaign last autumn, meaning another offseason to gel may pay dividends for the Panthers when they take the court in the sturdy Intermountain League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born and raised in this program,\u201d said Waltman, M-CHS Class of 2013, \u201cso it\u2019s been a part of me. We as a program want to continue to instill \u2018Panther Pride\u2019 and keep building on that tradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the energetic junior libero Sarah Sparks and the steadying junior setter Kescoleigh Boeckman, to the team\u2019s leading returner in kills \u2013 sophomore Tessa Jackson \u2013 the Panthers have leaders stepping into prominent vocal roles, joining forces with their strong seniors Kalea Ogo, Gabby Foster, and Karlee Hubbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese girls know the game, and they have the heart for it,\u201d added Waltman, \u201cand they\u2019re willing to put in the work through their own initiative \u2013 from the weight room to the offseason scrimmages \u2013 they\u2019ve focused on improving both individually and as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

That invigorating energy kept the Panthers in points a season ago, even when giving up some height at the net to virtually all of their opponents. M-CHS became adept at keeping plays alive, winning points through their resilience and hustle.<\/p>\n

Success during team camps in the offseason has Waltman optimistic that the Panther open gym workouts are starting to pay off. \u201cWe never had an open gym during the offseason where we had fewer than a dozen girls,\u201d said the Panther head coach, \u201cand that tells you how committed they are to making this season special.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers enjoy an early-season homestand to kick off the campaign, beginning with a match against Monticello on Aug. 23, before hosting Ignacio (Aug. 27) and Dolores (Sept. 3). IML play gets underway on the road in Bayfield on Sept. 10, with the Panthers first home league match arriving on Oct. 1 against Pagosa Springs. The home slate winds down with a trio of league matches against Bayfield (Oct. 8), Centauri (Oct. 11) and Alamosa (Oct. 12) before end-of-season tournaments and regionals await in late October and early November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS alumnus Danielle Waltman takes reins this fall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26136,"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-26135","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\/26135","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=26135"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79242,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26135\/revisions\/79242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26135"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}