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The long regional road awaits Durango volleyball

Demons will travel to Berthoud to play ‘tall’ teams in Berthoud, Mesa Ridge
Senior setter Logan Clark and Durango High School have their eyes on the state tournament. They just have to make it through regionals in Berthoud first. “We have to travel far, but if anyone can do it, we can do it,” DHS head coach Colleen Keresey said.

Traveling to the Front Range for a regional tournament will feel familiar to the Durango High School volleyball team.

The Demons did it last year, losing to Greeley Central and Thomas Jefferson.

“If you end your season with losses or not playing your best volleyball, there’s always some sort of wanting of redemption,” DHS head coach Colleen Keresey said Thursday. “The kids are not really focused on winning and losing, just on playing our best volleyball. We know what happens when we play well.”

This year’s No. 17 DHS side will face No. 8 Berthoud and No. 29 Mesa Ridge starting at 10 a.m. Saturday in Berthoud.

“Looking at rankings the last couple weeks of the season, it’s right about where we should be. We think its’s a very winnable region,” Keresey said. “I think, at this point, you have to beat anybody good, and you have to be playing your best volleyball. We have to travel far, but if anyone can do it, we can do it.”

The Demons will play Mesa Ridge (15-8) in their first match in the tournament’s second match of the day, then will face Berthoud (18-5) next in a volleyball doubleheader.

“Obviously, we’re a little blind, because nobody we know plays them or sees them,” Keresey said. “From stats and from MaxPreps, we know that Mesa Ridge is tall. They have a couple big middles.”

Junior Kylee Shook leads the Mesa Ridge attack and ranks 15th in the state with 326 kills. Two other players also have more than 125 kills on the year for the Grizzlies.

Mesa Ridge also features two setters in its attack: Senior Jordan Hoffman leads the team with 334 assists, while sophomore Audrey Scott has 313, as well.

Hoffman also ranks eighth in the state with 73 aces.

Berthoud has won eight consecutive matches entering the regional tournament.

The Spartans have three hitters with more than 135 kills, led by Hannah Atkinson’s 268.

“Berthoud really likes to set the outside. They have some tall outsides,” Keresey said.

Berthoud sophomore setter Jessa Megenhardt ranks seventh in the state with 9.7 assists per set, and junior libero Haley Hummel leads Colorado with 609 digs, 8.5 per set.

“We kind of know what kind of game to expect from each team,” Keresey said. “They’ll be totally different.”

DHS will try and return to the state tournament after missing out last season; win the tournament, and the Demons are in. The Demons qualified for state in three consecutive seasons before last year’s no-show.

“We have to play consistent, have to play with high energy, fundamentally well, serve well, pass well,” Keresey said. “We worked a lot this week in practice on keeping the ball in play and letting the other team make the mistake.”

kgrabowski@ durangoherald.com

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