{"id":31888,"date":"2023-09-08T16:34:37","date_gmt":"2023-09-08T22:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-withstands-early-season-roller-coaster\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:48:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:48:06","slug":"dove-creek-withstands-early-season-roller-coaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-withstands-early-season-roller-coaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek withstands early season roller coaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek\u2019s Kalie Gatlin (13) looks to set Kylie Gatlin (23) during the Lady Bulldogs' 1A Region 8 tournament opener versus Westminster Flatirons Academy Saturday.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOVE CREEK \u2013 Many high school student-athletes reflect on the bus rides as some of the most memorable from their athletic experiences.<\/p>\n

If that\u2019s the case, the Dove Creek girls will have a stockpile of albums put together before the midseason mark.<\/p>\n

When Mancos visits the Dawg House on Sept. 19 for a rematch of a thrilling five-setter, the Bulldogs volleyball program will have spent 11 of their first 12 matches away from their friendly home floor.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the Bulldogs carry a strong 8-2 record through the first 10 matches of the season, thanks to a pair of sweeps against their local rivals Nucla and Monticello this week.<\/p>\n

The wins follow a pair of tough matches against larger schools in Alamosa, where the Bulldogs split action against Pueblo Central and the host Mean Moose. Dove Creek took down the Wildcats, 3-0, before falling to the 3A state tournament qualifier Alamosa, 3-1.<\/p>\n

Returning starters senior Kylie Gatlin and junior Ralynn Hickman have tallied the lion\u2019s share of kills for the \u2018Dogs this year, with Kalie Gatlin dishing out assists from her setter position.<\/p>\n

For head coach Lacey Murphy, however, the matches served as an opportunity to see continued improvement from her supporting cast of first-time varsity starters.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Hadley Hatfield elevated her game, according to the Bulldog head coach, helping the Bulldogs build out of the back line.<\/p>\n

\u201cHadley\u2019s made a difference with our serve receive and defense,\u201d said Murphy, \u201cand we\u2019ve been working on our communication and handling errors better \u2013 trying to avoid getting into a cycle with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, senior Halee Beanland has settled into the full rotation for the Bulldogs, playing in every set for Murphy\u2019s group this season. It\u2019s consistency, according to the head coach, that will lead to ongoing success.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, we\u2019re getting better as a group,\u201d Murphy added, \u201cand even with all the travel, I think the girls are ready for the core part of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u2018Dogs will get set for their final matches of their travels with trips to Norwood (Thursday, Sept. 14) and Ignacio (Saturday, Sept. 16) over the next week, setting up the duel with Mancos on the following Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs growing while navigating first half travels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30496,"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-31888","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\/31888","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=31888"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81601,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31888\/revisions\/81601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31888"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}