(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
MONUMENT — Dating back to 2017, Castle View volleyball coach Scott Dowis knew that he was going to have a major youth movement this year.
The writing was on the wall because his roster was just full of seniors who would be departing at the conclusion of the season. The good news is they departed with the 2017 Class 5A state championship.
Wednesday night it was time to see if the younger girls on the roster were ready to step up. A 25-18, 25-13, 22-25, 25-22 win over Palmer Ridge would certainly indicate that the new crop of Sabercats were ready to take on the roles they been groomed for last season.
“We knew it was coming, it wasn’t a surprise,” Dowis said. “We were preparing for this year last year with some of our underclassmen who were going to have to fill some spots at a very young age. This is great experience for us. Palmer Ridge is a very quality opponent. We looked like a team that you wouldn’t guess a player isn’t playing the same position this year as they did last year; it’s a completely new lineup and they looked pretty good.”
The 5A No. 3 Sabercats (1-0 overall) took the first two sets from the Bears (1-1) with more ease than the final two sets offered.
Palmer Ridge, the No. 5 team in the 4A poll, closed the gap somewhat in the second set and used that momentum to prevent the Sabercats from driving north on I-25 with a sweep.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
“For a young team, because we are a young team, it was a huge momentum swing which was awesome,” Palmer Ridge coach Trevor Sullivan said. “We came out and scored as many points as we could in that second set. It helped us build into the third and we just used our big hitters. We had a nothing to lose mentality and swung away. We passed well, we served well.”
Like the Sabercats, the Bears are going through somewhat of a transformation. Sullivan is entering his first year as coach and a trio of talented freshmen from a year ago is no longer with the program.
But Sullivan saw a team that maintained a competitive fire from a year ago and can use a loss to a team like Castle View to get better and prepare them for tougher teams down the road, including potentially the toughest league in all of 4A.
“We have the luxury of playing great teams all the team,” Sullivan said. “Our conference is pretty tough and we have the defending state champions down the road. It’s great, it keeps our competitive level up.”
With a new lineup filing onto the court, the Sabercats are also bringing a new mentality into 2018. A repeat of a state championship would be nice, but the players know that in order to accomplish any major feat, this team has to go through a different journey than last year’s team did.
“Our mode and our mindset is always just to focus on this match and focus on every point,” junior Leanne Lowry said. “Obviously last year was great but we have different goals we want to accomplish.”
Lowry will be a key component in accomplishing those goals. She played libero last season but has moved to outside hitter this year. She led the Sabercats with 14 kills. That’s 12 better than her season total for all of 2017.
It’s all part of new Castle View team. The jerseys might look the same, but the girls, the on-court movements and, more importantly, the identity of this team is all brand new.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)