{"id":43605,"date":"2021-11-24T01:54:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T01:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-ignacio-represent-southwest-colorado-in-2a-all-state-volleyball-match\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:14:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:14:36","slug":"dolores-ignacio-represent-southwest-colorado-in-2a-all-state-volleyball-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-ignacio-represent-southwest-colorado-in-2a-all-state-volleyball-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores, Ignacio represent Southwest Colorado in 2A all-state volleyball match"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Kamri Willbanks bump-sets an attack during the Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Games' Class 2A Volleyball feature Sunday in Fort Collins.<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dolores, Ignacio represent Southwest Colorado in 2A all-state volleyball match<\/p>\n\n

FORT COLLINS \u2013 When Alexis Pontine tossed up the first serve of the Colorado Coaches of Girls\u2019 Sports All-State Games\u2019 Class 2A Volleyball showcase match on Sunday, the fact it didn\u2019t produce a point wasn\u2019t important.<\/p>\n

What was, was the fact Ignacio\u2019s senior co-captain had prolonged her fall season long enough to be able to show off the wicked jump-serve feared by 2A\/1A San Juan Basin Leaguers. Because for much of the Volleycats\u2019 inspired run to the CHSAA State Championships, it had been altered to more of a hop-serve.<\/p>\n

SJBL opponents might not have been able to tell something was off. Pontine, meanwhile, knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we went to Dove Creek, I had this big mass come up behind my knee,\u201d she recalled at the CCGS site, Fossil Ridge High School. \u201cAnd it started bruising, was really painful; the whole back of my knee was, like, black \u2013 it was really gross. An ultrasound showed the mass, but when I got my MRI done it was gone \u2026 because it had popped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey thought it was some kind of cyst \u2026 and it popped. So, yeah, it\u2019d been better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ignacio's
Ignacio's Alexis Pontine sets up an attack during the All-State Games Class 2A Volleyball feature Sunday in Fort Collins. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ignacio
Ignacio coach Shasta Pontine, left, and Dolores coach Gina Hollen share a laugh during a timeout, with IHS' Alexis Pontine caught in the middle. The San Juan Basin Leaguers were all CCGS All-State Volleyball selections, and all named to the Class 2A-Red team. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\"Dolores'
Dolores' Erin Brown applauds her 2A-Red teammates' effort during action against Blue in the Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Games' Class 2A Volleyball feature Sunday in Fort Collins. Because of a left-leg injury, Brown was unable to play.<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores'
Dolores' Erin Brown (second from left) shares a laugh with Oak Creek Soroco's Sophia Benjamin before the Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Games' Class 2A Volleyball feature Sunday at Fort Collins' Fossil Ridge High School.<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores'
Dolores' Kamri Willbanks gives props to her fellow 2A-Blue teammates during pre-match introductions Sunday at the Colorado Coaches of Girls' Sports All-State Games' Class 2A Volleyball feature.<\/span>Joel Priest\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

But certainly not as strong as the joint appeared in Colorado Springs for the state tournament and then nine days later up in Larimer County \u2013 where her first two aces not only embarrassed 2A-Blue, but gave 2A-Red their first leads in the best-of-three match, though all three games were guaranteed, at 13-12 and 14-12.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Red \u2013 coached by IHS\u2019 Shasta Pontine and SJBL rival Dolores\u2019 Gina Hollen \u2013 would lose a hard-fought opening stanza 27-25, via a successful set dump by Wiggins\u2019 Rachael White and then a tip by Holyoke\u2019s Kristin Vieselmeyer.<\/p>\n

And though Red would bounce back in Game 2, taking a quick 4-3 lead via a kill by Limon\u2019s Trista Marx, the one-off squad would eventually fall behind 2 games to 0 in the contest. Alison Woodhams of freshly minted State Champion Sedgwick County spiked a White set to bring up game point at 24-20, and after Blue\u2019s Tabor Flanagan (Greeley Dayspring Christian) managed to dig a Pontine nail, White placed another set dump into a vacated corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was really fun \u2013 especially playing with new people you\u2019ve never played with, or you\u2019ve always played against,\u201d said Woodhams, who attends Ovid Revere \u2013 which combines talents with Julesburg to form the formidable Sedgwick County co-op, known mostly in recent years for eight-man football dominance. \u201cSo it was a pretty cool experience to play with those girls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust playing with people who love the sport as much as you do \u2026 it\u2019s just an amazing feeling,\u201d Pontine said, \u201cand I\u2019m super-honored to be picked to play in the all-state game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game 3 again saw Blue dash out to a 4-0 lead before Red \u2013 minus Dolores\u2019 Erin Brown, who was on the bench but unable to play due to a booted lower left leg \u2013 powered ahead to take a 14-12 lead on back-to-back kills by Fowler\u2019s Emily Flanscha. That advantage would steadily grow to as great as 23-17 after Blue setter \u2013 and Dolores Lady Bea \u2013 Kamri Willbanks surrendered a point via a shaky set, and White then sent a swing wide.<\/p>\n

Beginning with a Woodhams kill, Blue began pecking away as Red began pressing, each one of its seniors hoping to taste even a partial victory one last time. Pontine was no exception, but was substituted out in favor of Oak Creek Soroco\u2019s Peyton Parker after a third failed attack \u2013 coupled with two other Red errors \u2013 allowed Blue to pull even at 23.<\/p>\n

Sargent\u2019s Gabby Jones then hit out of bounds, giving Red one chance at claiming the game up 24-23, but consecutive Woodhams put-aways regained Blue the momentum \u2013 ultimately producing a 26-25 lead via a Jones kill, and then a 27-25 sweep-clinching win when Red setter Morgan Elarton (Rye) accidentally netted a pass.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt being such a close and competitive game was great; going past 25 \u2026 in two sets was super-cool,\u201d Pontine said. \u201cI feel it would be a lot more (fun) if Erin was playing \u2013 I wish we could get more girls from our league up here \u2013 but I feel like we (Southwesterners) represented pretty good. It was fun, you know, playing your last high-school game with people like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shasta Pontine play and coach; Dolores players also selected <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1235,345],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-ignacio","tag-volleyball"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43605","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=43605"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85764,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43605\/revisions\/85764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43605"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}