{"id":1314005,"date":"2019-08-27T07:00:01","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/rifle-volleyball-continues-rebuild-with-veteran-talent\/"},"modified":"2019-08-27T07:00:01","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T13:00:01","slug":"rifle-volleyball-continues-rebuild-with-veteran-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rifle-volleyball-continues-rebuild-with-veteran-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Rifle volleyball continues rebuild with veteran talent"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"402\" src=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/08\/Riflevolleyball-GPI-082719.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/08\/Riflevolleyball-GPI-082719.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2019\/08\/Riflevolleyball-GPI-082719-300x195.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Last season, which happened to be the first year under new head coach Caitlin Brady, was one to forget for the Rifle volleyball program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">They won just one game and seven sets, but the Bears had to go through the tough times and absorb the bumps and bruises that came with the 2018 season to set up future success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Back with another full year of varsity experience are juniors Maddy Valencia, Mackenzie Elizardo, and Katelyn Mentick, as well as senior Breanna Seay and sophomore Sage Allen, giving Brady an experienced number of starters to work with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Brady is hoping this core group of varsity athletes sets the tone for program moving forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI expect this group to really stand out as far as what our program is going to be,\u201d Brady said. \u201cI\u2019ve had all these juniors since they were freshman, some even prior to that. Their skills have been evolving, and they\u2019re coming out ready to prove themselves as a group, even if we\u2019re going to be young. Teams are going to notice our skill and notice these girls and how close they are as a group.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While the group can continue to grow and improve on the court, they\u2019ll be judged by the standard wins-and-losses mark over the next two seasons, which could be a bit early and slightly unfair to them as Brady had to strip the program down to its bare bones to start the proper rebuild. That said, Rifle isn\u2019t shying away from the challenge ahead.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWe\u2019re always striving for that .500 mark,\u201d Brady said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t reached that mark since 1999. \u2026 These girls did really well in the summer with this young group, so I think we\u2019re going to do really well once the season starts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Bears still find themselves in the tough 4A Western Slope League, but thanks to graduation hitting the top programs hard in the league, the playing surface appears to be much more even and competitive than in years past. That should benefit the Bears right away as Rifle\u2019s first home game is Thursday against Grand Valley in the CHSAA Foundation Game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:jcarney@postindependent.com\">jcarney@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/sports\/rifle-volleyball-continues-rebuild-with-veteran-talent\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last season, which happened to be the first year under new head coach Caitlin Brady, was one to forget for the Rifle volleyball program. They won just one game and seven sets, but the Bears had to go through the tough times and absorb the bumps and bruises that came with the 2018 season to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 14:45:44","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":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}