The ongoing turnaround for the Moffat County volleyball program hit a new milestone last fall when the Bulldogs made it to the state playoffs for the first time since 2007.

Even though they will have a much different lineup this year, players and coaches are looking to prove that was no fluke.

MCHS volleyball has been going full bore this week as practices begin for the fall season, the third under the guidance of head coach Becca Sage.

“It’s been a lot easier to get to know them from freshmen up to juniors or the sophomores that are now seniors,” Sage said. “There’s a lot of growing that happens between those times, and it’s nice to see them from start to finish.”

Sage has narrowed down her main varsity roster, which is a mix of returning starters, bench players and a few athletes who will suit up for the top tier for the first time.

The group is wholly different in what they bring to the game compared to some of the girls who have since graduated, but Sage said those differences are very much a strength.

“This team is going to be fast, and we’ve got really good height,” Sage said. “All of our front-row hitters are super-powerful. It’s hard to pick out what they do better between hitting and passing. They’re all quick and agile, they’ve got it all.”

Sage noted that many teams in the 3A Western Slope League will be seeing shakeups, which won’t be a bad thing for her.

“A lot of teams in our league lost their big power seniors, and I’m gaining mine,” Sage said. “A lot of our league teams are young.”

Sage has six seniors: Mara Beckett, Kirsten Peed, Ruby Short, Emma Tucker, Jordis White and Kyra Wilson.

Beckett has spent the past few years playing libero for the younger teams and is looking forward to finally being part of a varsity match, though the length of games alone will be a challenge.

“It’s a lot more playing time with five sets, so that will be an adjustment,” Beckett said. “I think we’ll have a lot of fun this year and win a lot.”

She added that open gym sessions this summer allowed the seniors to reconvene after they’ve spent the past few years split among multiple levels.

“It’ll be fun for us all to play together as one group,” Beckett said. “We really haven’t since middle school, honestly.”

Attending a camp recently hosted by the University of Wyoming proved beneficial.

“This whole team played together at that camp, so we’ve already had a taste of what it will look like,” Short said. “There was a lot of preseason work that we had there. We didn’t have that my junior year, and it would have been really helpful to be able to work together before we get into league games. We had a lot of team camaraderie and got to stay in the dorms together, so we connected on and off the court. So I’m really glad we did that.”

Doing that extra prep work will also allow the squad to try more tactics on the court.

“It’ll be cool to see if we run a 6-2 or a 5-1 (rotation), because now we have a little more diversity on our team,” Short said.

Besides going to the team camp, Wilson also attended individual training this summer in Kremmling and at Regis University.

“It really helped me get back into it before tryouts and specify all my skills so I can get better at hitting or passing and give the team all I got our first game,” Wilson said. “I’ve really improved on my hitting this year. I want to try to be an all-around player and be good everywhere and every position. We all try to train in every position in case we need to throw somebody in there.”

Short and Wilson boast some of the best statistics from last year as juniors. Short led the team in kills with 133, while Wilson is the strongest returning player at the line, with 26 aces and a service rate of 89.3 percent.

For current juniors, Caitlyn Adams is the most prolific returning blocker with 32 shutdowns at the net last fall, and Mena Tucker notched 20 kills despite only playing 22 sets last season.

Last year saw the Bulldogs finish 11-10, the first winning record in 15 years — they broke even at 11-11 in 2021 — and qualified for the regional round of the 3A state playoffs.

Making it to that upper echelon was a huge confidence booster, Short said.

“That was such a good experience for us, and the kind of team we have, we’re good with pressure and building each other up.”

Now that the standard has been set, the objective is to do the same if not better.

“Their biggest goal is to make it to the playoffs, especially this senior group,” Sage said. “They want to see if we can make it even further than last year.”

The journey starts with a regional rivalry game on the MCHS floor Aug. 26 with Steamboat Springs, and a win against a team that regularly sweeps them each year will certainly set the tone for success this fall.

Short said she expects her last year of high school will have some unusual features, though she’s embracing it rather than running from it.

“Senior season is going to be filled with a lot of change, and senior year is just the year of change in general with all the adjustments in the district,” Short said. “When it comes to volleyball, our team is really good about resilience; we come back and we keep fighting.”