{"id":30713,"date":"2023-11-11T18:14:32","date_gmt":"2023-11-11T18:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-bulldogs-advance-to-state-volleyball-semifinals\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T07:23:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:23:51","slug":"dove-creek-bulldogs-advance-to-state-volleyball-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-bulldogs-advance-to-state-volleyball-semifinals\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek Bulldogs advance to state volleyball semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek's Kylie Gatlin (23) looks to tip away from Haxtun's Cassidy Goddard (7) during Day 1 action at the 2023 CHSAA Class 1A State Volleyball Championships inside the Denver Coliseum. Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DENVER \u2013 In Frank Sinatra\u2019s words, \u201cThe best revenge is massive success.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the Dove Creek volleyball team, it\u2019s hard to imagine a sweeter success as part of their dreamlike state tournament run.<\/p>\n

Their latest victory came at the expense of McClave, with whom the Bulldogs have developed a strong rivalry over the course of the past three years. While their latest encounter was on the basketball court, the Cardinal and Bulldog volleyball rosters have plenty of players who shared the court just eight months ago in McClave\u2019s 1A state semifinal basketball victory.<\/p>\n

This time, Dove Creek walked away all smiles after eliminating the Cardinals in a thrilling four-setter, 22-25, 25-12, 25-17, 26-24, to earn the program\u2019s first semifinal appearance in a decade. The victory also marked the third time this tournament that Dove Creek rallied from a set down to come back with a win.<\/p>\n

McClave squeaked past Lacey Murphy\u2019s Bulldogs in set one, 25-22, as the \u2018Dogs once again saw themselves in a hole.<\/p>\n

Placement superseded power in the second set against the Cardinals, as senior Kylie Gatlin found pockets on the floor where McClave couldn\u2019t reach, building a nine-point lead at 17-8. Twin sister Kalie Gatlin made life miserable at the net for Cardinal hitters, picking up blocks on consecutive points to extend the lead to 19-9.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Hadley Hatfield belted kills on back-to-back points to keep the Bulldog bench fired up, before junior Ralynn Hickman\u2019s service sequence put the set away, 25-12.<\/p>\n

In the third, the Bulldogs got back to the heavy hitting, jolting an 8-1 run behind the power of Kylie Gatlin and Hickman to build a 14-7 lead mid-frame.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the lively play that aided the Bulldogs to extended points in wins over Cheraw and Otis served them well again. Williams and Hatfield made a number of diving digs to sustain plays that eventually led to Bulldog kills. The lead ballooned to 20-12, and Dove Creek kept McClave at arm\u2019s length for the rest of the set, with Hickman\u2019s kill icing the 25-17 third set win.<\/p>\n

The third-ranked Cardinals (23-4) jumped out on Dove Creek in the fourth, blocking multiple DC attacks while constructing a 7-0 start. Dove Creek began to chip away, closing with 11-7, thanks to working around the blocking walls with some well-placed set attacks. The energy was squarely back on the Dove Creek side after a 5-0 run knotted the score at 12 with senior Halee Beanland at the service line.<\/p>\n

Hatfield and sophomore Allex Williams helped continue to turn the tide with strong serve strings, as Dove Creek took their first lead of the set at 19-18. From there, the \u2018Dogs extended the lead to 23-20, only to see McClave rally for four straight points to take the lead back, 24-23.<\/p>\n

Big plays in big moments, it\u2019s been the Bulldog mantra all tournament \u2013 Dove Creek staved off set point, then Hickman came up with the point of the match with a smash from the middle of the net to put down a McClave pass.<\/p>\n

The Cardinals couldn\u2019t return the serve on match point, and Dove Creek clinched their spot in the state semifinals.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek (26-3) advances to the state semifinals to face No. 1 Merino (25-1), who dealt the Bulldogs their lone loss of the tournament, in the state semifinals at 12 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comeback win over McClave continues Dove Creek run<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30714,"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-30713","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\/30713","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=30713"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81175,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30713\/revisions\/81175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30713"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}