{"id":37738,"date":"2022-10-21T17:53:31","date_gmt":"2022-10-21T23:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-bears-show-fight-on-senior-night\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:39:50","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:39:50","slug":"dolores-bears-show-fight-on-senior-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-bears-show-fight-on-senior-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores Bears show fight on Senior Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores senior Sharma Chaffee sets the ball across the net in a match against Telluride. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal
\n)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

From their season-opening match to their home finale, the difference has been night and day for the Dolores Bears volleyball program.<\/p>\n

Playing with a different level of cohesion and confidence in their Senior Day match, the Bears gave Telluride all they could handle but came up short in a five-set thriller. The Miners rallied from a 2-1 deficit to spoil the high-energy Bears\u2019 Senior Night, winning 16-25, 25-18, 23-25, 25-15, 15-11.<\/p>\n

The Bears (6-12, 3-6 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League) led 10-7 in the deciding set before the visitors scored seven of the final eight points in the match to secure revenge after Dolores had beaten the Miners 3-2 earlier this season.<\/p>\n

Four seniors made their final appearances on the DHS Fieldhouse floor, with captain Chandler Smith leading a spirited start for the Bears, who jumped on the Miners 12-2 in the opening set and never looked back.<\/p>\n

Serving strings of five consecutive points for junior Brooklyn Lee and later from senior Kristen Kemp spurred the bright start, before Smith sealed the first set with a well-placed set kill.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores senior Chandler Smith sets the ball in a match against Telluride at the DHS Fieldhouse. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal
\n)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores junior Mikayla Puett bumps the ball to a teammate as freshman Taylor Erautt watches in a match against Telluride. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal
\n)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The
The Dolores volleyball team huddles before their match against Telluride at the DHS Fieldhouse. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal
\n)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Telluride (10-11, 4-6 2A\/1A SJBL) responded with a big surge of their own, turning away a Bears comeback in the second set by scoring the final six points to claim a 25-18 win to even up the match.<\/p>\n

Showing the grit of a team that made tremendous strides along the front line, Dolores reasserted its momentum in the third set. Junior Mikayla Puett scored a block and a kill on consecutive points midway through the set, before Kemp added a kill down the line to spark a 4-0 Bears run. Classmate Akima Edwards added a kill to knot the score at 19-all.<\/p>\n

Then, with the set in the balance, freshman Taylor Erautt provided a spike to give the Bears a 24-23 lead. She then stepped to the service line and laced an ace to the back corner of the court, giving the hosts a 2-1 set advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team has really gelled. They\u2019re making plays that we might not have made at the beginning of the season,\u201d said longtime Bear head coach Gina Hollen. \u201cWe controlled the ball better and have been making more plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Miners dominated the fourth set in the seesaw battle, setting up the decisive race to 15 points. The teams evenly split the first eight points of the set, before Dolores picked up big plays from Erautt and Smith to expand their lead to three points.<\/p>\n

However, Telluride wrestled the lead back from Dolores with some big serves, and the Bears couldn\u2019t find one more answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to reset and refocus,\u201d added Hollen. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t quite pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Sharma Chaffee enjoyed a solid day on the front line for the Bears, as Dolores kept plenty of rallies alive thanks to hustle plays from a number of different players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve improved all season,\u201d said Hollen of the seniors. \u201cThey had some big shoes to fill this year, and they\u2019ve become more confident and consistent with each match.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores will complete its season with road matches at Ridgway on Saturday, Oct. 22, before ending their season against Ignacio on Tuesday, Oct. 25.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about the wins and losses, it\u2019s about what skills these girls can take from their experience out here that they can take with them for the rest of their lives,\u201d said Hollen. \u201cThey\u2019re learning to work together and persevere, which is what this experience is all about.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores seniors wrap up home careers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,28,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37738","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=37738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83769,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37738\/revisions\/83769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37738"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}