<\/p>\n
A back door can be as good an entryway as a front door.<\/p>\n
It only depends on a person\u2019s perspective unless that person remains locked out.<\/p>\n
Monday morning, the Dove Creek Lady Bulldogs learned that a win over lowly Walden-based North Park and a loss to powerhouse La Veta at the Dove Creek-hosted Class 1A-Region E Tournament wasn\u2019t enough to earn wild-card berth into the 2019 state volleyball tournament.<\/p>\n
At the end of the regular season, Dove Creek High School (21-2 overall) was a Top 10 team in RPI, but after Saturday\u2019s action had slipped to 11th \u2014 still ahead of No. 12 Haxtun, though. And with the championships\u2019 ninth through 12th qualifiers to be determined by RPI ratings, a backdoor inclusion was a possibility for Jody Gardner\u2019s crew.<\/p>\n
However, both Huxton and No. 13 Wiley both triumphed at their regionals, as did No. 9 Mosca Sangre de Cristo. And with the top 5 \u2014 Merino, Kit Carson, Genoa-Hugo\/Karval, Fleming, LVHS \u2014 all having won regional crowns, Dove Creek ended up the highest-rated squad denied admission to the tournament Nov. 14-16.<\/p>\n
Receiving the at-large bids, unfortunately, were Briggsdale (20-7), South Baca County (20-4), Springfield (16-6), and Otis (16-8) \u2014 sixth, seventh, eighth and 10th, respectively, on the final RPI ladder Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s crazy,\u201d said Dove Creek setter Taylor Hickman. \u201cI couldn\u2019t ask for a better team, and ending my senior year hosting regionals for the third time. \u2026 I couldn\u2019t ask for any better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us even thought we were going to play them,\u201d senior outside\/middle hitter Cassie Gatlin said, regarding La Veta. \u201cWe all thought we were going to be playing Sangre, but then there was that big upset! (The Lady Thunderbirds stunned La Veta 3-1 in the previous weekend\u2019s District 6 Tournament finale.) So we were, like, pretty nervous for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
But other than in a somewhat shaky Game 3 of a 25-16, 25-12, 25-22 rout of North Park \u2014 polished off by a shot kill by freshman reserve Trista Barnett, a service ace by sophomore Shania Kibel, and a clean kill by junior Grace Hatfield \u2014 Dove Creek\u2019s nerves weren\u2019t very visible.<\/p>\n
Despite lacking many of their rowdiest supporters, including the Dove Creek football team, which was playing in the state playoffs in Gypsum, the Lady Bulldogs raced out to a 7-3 lead.<\/p>\n
Trailing 13-10 after a Dove Creek serve sailed long, La Veta tied it up with a kill by senior outside hitter Nya Sciacca and two stuffs by Desirae Ortivez at the net.<\/p>\n
Ortivez then put the guests ahead with a tip of a Mary Goins set, and although Dove Creek managed a tie at 17, La Veta took command. Consecutive Sciacca kills upped the Lady Redskins\u2019 lead to 22-19, and despite a harsh Gatlin put-away, La Veta booked a 25-20 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cDove Creek that first set, they were putting it to us point-to-point,\u201d said LVHS head coach Amber Huff. \u201cAnd I appreciate them doing that because that\u2019s what my girls need to get better. We were super-excited to see that competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know each other\u2019s strengths and weaknesses, and try to work with that,\u201d Hickman said. \u201cI think our scrappiness is definitely to our advantage. Teams don\u2019t expect that.\u201d<\/p>\n
La Veta\u2019s\u2019 early 5-0 lead in Game 2 would balloon to 20-10, and later to as great as 24-13. Dove Creek would stave off game point three times \u2014 via a Gatlin kill, a Sciacca swing into the strings and an error by La Veta\u2019s Aryanna Flores before Sciacca stuffed down an over-pass for a 2-0 lead in the best of five sets.<\/p>\n
And after a 3-0 start in Game 3, which swelled to 10-2 via consecutive Ortivez kills, there was no doubting the Lady Redskins were on a roll. Gardner burned a timeout down 16-6, but La Veta (24-1) cruised to match point, 24-9, via an ace through the net by senior reserve Anna Montalbano.<\/p>\n
Dove Creek stayed alive for another rally, but Hickman then netted a serve for La Veta\u2019s 25-20, 25-16, 25-10 conquest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came out ready to play, but so did Dove Creek,\u201d declared Huff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realized that we were dropping in our intensity,\u201d Dove Creek senior Kiara Lingenfelter said. \u201cBut I think no matter how bad we\u2019re playing, we still love to be out there \u2026 as long as we can, doing the best that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t feel like we necessarily played to our potential. It was like one of those early morning games no one likes,\u201d said Gatlin. \u201cWe\u2019re pretty satisfied, but we\u2019re not satisfied enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Regionals loss, ratings system derail Bulldogs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64467,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64466","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=64466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91761,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64466\/revisions\/91761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64466"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}