{"id":30923,"date":"2023-10-30T19:35:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T01:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lady-bears-close-out-volleyball-season\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:30:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:30:45","slug":"lady-bears-close-out-volleyball-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/lady-bears-close-out-volleyball-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Lady Bears close out volleyball season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Aided
Aided by freshman Madi Thornbrugh (3), Dolores' Kayla Tallmadge tries blocking Ignacio's Kacey Brown (4) during the Lady Bears' 2023 finale Tuesday, Oct. 24, inside DHS' auxiliary gymnasium. The Senior Night match \u2013 also a National Breast Cancer Awareness Month contest, as evidenced by the Lady Bears' pink jerseys \u2013 was the last for Tallmadge and Mikayla Puett. (Joel Priest\/For the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Hearts were in Dolores Volleyball fans\u2019 throats Tuesday when Mikayla Puett arose gingerly after unsuccessfully pursuing a poor pass gifting the imposing guests another point and putting the Lady Bears, already trailing 1-0 in the night\u2019s best-of-five, down 19-6 in the second stanza.<\/p>\n

One of just two seniors on longtime head coach Gina Hollen\u2019s 2023 roster, and having proved herself most able against Ignacio senior middle Solymar Cosio, losing Puett \u2014o n Senior Night, no less \u2014 would likely have doomed DHS even faster than the Volleycats\u2019 pace at the time. But somehow, Puett stayed in the 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League match and very nearly inspired hard-luck Dolores to push the action into a fourth game.<\/p>\n

At the least.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I kind of hoped we would,\u201d she said afterward, \u201cand we were really close the whole (third) game. But unfortunately it just didn\u2019t work out. But it was aggressive, and those are best ones\u2014even if you don\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Mikayla Puett (8) shouts in celebration after scoring a point during the Lady Bears' 2023 finale Tuesday, Oct. 24, versus Ignacio. Played inside DHS' auxiliary gymnasium, the clash was DHS' Senior Night (for Puett and Kayla Tallmadge) contest, and doubled as a National Breast Cancer Awareness Month match (as evidenced by the pink jerseys). (Joel Priest\/For the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI tripped on one of my teammates, and it stunned me for a second,\u201d said Puett, recalling her nervous brush with an ankle injury. \u201cBut I think it was, like, the adrenalin \u2026 and it\u2019s fine now, doesn\u2019t hurt. I got right back up, didn\u2019t feel anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

And though Dolores began Game 3 looking for answers after losing by 18 points, the squad\u2019s collective hope of avoiding a sweep was kept alive by Puett and classmate Kayla Tallmadge, both of whom were very much honored \u2013 in word and tribute \u2013 by their coaches and teammates prior to the varsities\u2019 first serve.<\/p>\n

Helped by a Puett roll shot into IHS\u2019 center, plus a subsequent Puett scoring block, the Lady Bears broke out to a 5-0 lead and pressed Ignacio skipper Jennifer Seibel into burning an early timeout. DHS sophomore libero Keeley Clarke, however, emerged from the attempted interruption and aced IHS junior Ollyvia Howe, and Dolores then snatched the next point as well for an unexpected 7-0 advantage before sophomore Taylor Erautt, hoping to further turn up the heat, put an attack into the net.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Kayla Tallmadge tries keeping her Senior Night emotions in check while being lauded by coaches and teammates prior to the Lady Bears' 2023 finale Tuesday, Oct. 24, versus Ignacio. (Joel Priest\/For the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

IHS senior Kacey Brown then sent a back-row attack long, and DHS\u2019 lead stood 8-1. Unluckily, the \u2019Cats clawed back to tie at 10-all after two Cosio aces, and the contest became a seesaw affair ultimately won by Ignacio when freshman Lady Bear Kendall Chavez served long over IHS freshman libero Lily Quintana\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

But the Volleycats\u2019 25-13, 25-7, 25-22 road win wasn\u2019t assured until that final point; Chavez had cracked a kill off Cosio\u2019s block to actually bring DHS level at 21-21, and Tallmadge drilled her final prep-level kill to keep Dolores (3-17 overall; 1-10 SJBL, 1-7 2A SJBL) believing at 24-22.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Mikayla Puett receives a congratulatory embrace from sophomore libero Keeley Clarke (0) after receiving an extensive Senior Night salute from coaches and teammates prior to the Lady Bears' 2023 finale Tuesday, Oct. 24, versus Ignacio. (Joel Priest\/For the Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cAll the tears \u2026. I wasn\u2019t expecting to be this emotional, but I was,\u201d Tallmadge said. \u201cI definitely had some nerves but I think, like, that one last shot really makes it special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely were super excited, like, especially after the second game,\u201d she continued, speaking of how the Lady Bears, buoyed by Puett\u2019s persistence, regrouped to fight to the end. \u201cIt was kind of calm, but there was excitement there \u2026 focusing on keeping consistent what we were doing and how we were working together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seemed to have had our ups and downs this year,\u201d Hollen said. \u201cBut I think we fought harder than ever, and we actually played some offense; that\u2019s kind of been a huge struggle of ours. So I\u2019m proud of how the girls played.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still a young team, we\u2019ve had some growing pains, but looking to the future \u2026 there\u2019s a lot of good,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think with maturity and work, carrying that momentum we have now into next season is going to be huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a developmental year; there was only Mikayla and I as \u2018those\u2019 upperclassmen\u2014there were a few juniors as well\u2014and I think getting to play with those younger girls really made it special,\u201d Tallmadge said. \u201cGetting to teach them\u2014and also learn so much from them\u2014was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing into the season it was kind of rocky; I didn\u2019t know how it was going to go,\u201d said Puett. \u201cBut at the end of the season \u2014 and especially this (match) \u2014 I think we\u2019ve all really improved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy teammates \u2026 I love them a whole lot,\u201d she said, \u201cand \u2026 I\u2019m glad my last game went as well as it did. It was fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

finish fuels optimism for \u201924<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30924,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,642,1877,346,345],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-sports","tag-high-school-volleyball","tag-sports","tag-volleyball"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30923","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=30923"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81254,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30923\/revisions\/81254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30923"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}