{"id":31878,"date":"2023-08-27T18:01:08","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-volleyball-builds-around-senior-leaders\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:47:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:47:58","slug":"bears-volleyball-builds-around-senior-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-volleyball-builds-around-senior-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears volleyball builds around senior leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores freshman Kendall Chavez skies for a bump to keep a play alive for the Bears in a tournament at Gunnison High SchoolBen Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Playing winning volleyball starts with quality team chemistry. The Dolores Bears program has thrived on developing that dynamic through its upperclassmen, aiming to keep a strong tradition intact by building up the youths from their first days on the varsity court.<\/p>\n

A pair of seniors look to do just that this year for head coach Gina Hollen\u2019s Bears, as Kayla Tallmadge and Mikayla Puett lead a young squad this fall.<\/p>\n

The Bears posted a record of 7-13 in 2022, and have a significant portion of their roster back, a year stronger and wiser, to take on a tough San Juan Basin League schedule.<\/p>\n

Puett has served as a major catalyst for the program over the past several years, she herself learning from the upperclassmen of the past couple years to hone her skills as a premier middle hitter, and now she takes the banner to lead the Bears this fall.<\/p>\n

Puett led the team in kills last year and hopes to provide leadership for the Dolores front line, which included classmate Kayla Tallmadge, who proved to be a threat alongside Puett at the net.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores junior Savannah Stiegelmeyer attacks at the net in a match against Salida at Gunnison High School.Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores head coach Gina Hollen discusses strategy during a timeout in a tournament at Gunnison High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores senior Mikayla Puett looks to block a Salida attack in a match at Gunnison High School.Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores senior Kayla Tallmadge elevates to push the ball over the net in a match at Gunnison High School.Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cKayla and I are both really positive people,\u201d said Puett about her new role as team captain, \u201cand we\u2019re both familiar with the rotations and really focus on keeping the team up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Junior Savannah Stiegelmeyer steps up to the varsity stage, while sophomores Keeley Clark \u2013 the team\u2019s libero \u2013 and Taylor Erautt spearhead the youth movement for the Bears. Both Clark and Erautt saw plenty of varsity action as freshmen, and hope to continue their development this fall, while a new crew of first-years will make an immediate impact on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s taken us some time to get used to each other, with all the freshmen on the team,\u201d said Puett, \u201cso we\u2019re really getting to learn how each of our teammates plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores (1-6, 0-1 2A\/1A SJBL) collected their first win of the season at the Gunnison Invitational, where the Bears avenged an early loss against Norwood with a sweep of the Mavericks. Hollen\u2019s Bears also battled tough against the host Cowgirls before falling in defeat, but the results helped garner confidence for a young Bears team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to get a lot of blocks,\u201d added Puett of the team\u2019s Gunnison tournament improvements, \u201cand we were really meshing well as a team, and that came from talking more. It\u2019s helped us to all be in a positive mood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bears travel to face local rival Mancos on Sept. 7 in their first of two meetings against the Bluejays. Five of their final six regular season matches will come at home, capped with Senior Night on Oct. 24 with Ignacio in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my senior season, and regardless of wins and losses, I want to make sure that we\u2019re having fun,\u201d concluded the Bear captain, \u201cmy teammates are my friends off the court, too, and I want to walk away with a ton of great memories.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Consistency looks to guide Bears this season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1206,28,36,29,345],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-county-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-volleyball"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31878","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=31878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81596,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31878\/revisions\/81596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31878"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}