{"id":20054,"date":"2019-11-11T20:06:01","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T03:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=61437"},"modified":"2019-11-12T08:06:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T15:06:59","slug":"pure-joy-mustangs-off-to-state-with-heads-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/pure-joy-mustangs-off-to-state-with-heads-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Pure joy: Mustangs off to state with heads high"},"content":{"rendered":"

West Grand is playing its best volleyball of the season, and the timing couldn\u2019t be better for the Mustangs, who\u2019ve punched their ticket to the Class 2A state tournament this week in Denver.<\/p>\n

To get to there, the Mustangs had to get past Ignacio and Highland in the regional tournament Friday in Kremmling. Well, West Grand handled Ignacio in four sets before sending Highland home in three.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey played their best volleyball of the season (on Friday),\u201d Coach Scott Terryberry said after the matches. \u201cWe\u2019re going to state, and right now we\u2019re on a roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the second match vs. Highland, West Grand was about to win in the third set. As the moment drew near, Mustangs fans filling the gymnasium rose to their feet and the school\u2019s cheerleaders made their way down from the stands to court level.<\/p>\n

Once the score was final, the cheer squad rushed the hardwood and collided with the volleyball team, setting off a sea of hugs, celebration and tears of joy.<\/p>\n

For Mikayla Shearer and Emma DeSanti, two senior leaders on the volleyball team, it almost didn\u2019t feel real.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just knew we had to put our all into it,\u201d DeSanti said of the regional tournament, adding that she and her teammates didn\u2019t know if this would be their last chance to play together.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Emma DeSanti, left, and Mikayla Shearer contest a shot during the Class 2A regional tournament Friday in Kremmling.<\/strong>
Eli Pace \/ epace@skyhinews.com<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

But everything clicked Friday, their coach said, and the team prevailed to see another match. While West Grand has been fantastic throughout the year, running its league record up to 11-1, the Mustangs are playing their best games right now, Terryberry said.<\/p>\n

It seems this was exactly what the team wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so excited,\u201d DeSanti said, fans still celebrating behind her. \u201cThis was our goal all season, but when it actually happened \u2014 this was just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning the regional tournament at home only made the accomplishment that much sweeter. DeSanti and Shearer both gave the Mustangs\u2019 fans credit after the matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, definitely,\u201d Shearer said of feeling the home court advantage, in which the volume and energy inside the gym only made the team want to play that much harder.<\/p>\n

For state, 12 squads will face off in a double-elimination bracket at the Denver Coliseum later this week and weekend. Once they reach the semifinals, it becomes single elimination.<\/p>\n

In Thursday\u2019s opening round, West Grand will square off with Del Norte. With the No. 7 seed, the Mustangs come into the matchup the higher ranked of the two, and the winner will move on to face No. 2 Limon, which has a first round bye.<\/p>\n

Going into the tournament, the Mustangs appear to be keeping their goals pretty straightforward.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just thinking we want to go in there with our heads high,\u201d DeSanti said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd play with our heart,\u201d Shearer and DeSanti added.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
74674893_2425222647737726_8741832995255615488_o<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

West Grand is playing its best volleyball of the season, and the timing couldn\u2019t be better for the Mustangs, who\u2019ve punched their ticket to the Class 2A state tournament this week in Denver. To get to there, the Mustangs had to get past Ignacio and Highland in the regional tournament Friday in Kremmling. Well, West […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-15 18:11:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20054"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20055,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20054\/revisions\/20055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}