University volleyball looking to ride last season’s title run into 2022 campaign

University volleyball needed just three losses within a month’s time to force the team to reassess. Those three setbacks, all to teams that earned bids to the Class 3A state tournament, helped ignite the Bulldogs’ run toward state championship glory last fall.

Senior middle blocker Katie Bauer remembers that time well.

“In the summer, we were a new team,” she said. “We lost three pretty important seniors but when the time for the real season came around, we were still kind of figuring out who fit where and who did what. We started off pretty well and then in the middle of the season, we had a rough patch, so we talked about what we needed from each other, what we needed from the coaches and from there on out, that trust (was) regained.”

They didn’t know it at the time, but that last loss of that time span, which came at the hands of eventual No. 5 seed Liberty Common, would be the final setback of their entire season. From there on out, the Bulldogs played in 11 more matches and only dropped three sets.

Bauer credits University’s tough league, perhaps the toughest in all of Class 3A Colorado, for their future success. After all, the Patriot League accounted for half of the total teams that qualified for the state tournament thanks to University, Liberty Common, Sterling, Platte Valley, Eaton and Resurrection Christian.

“There are so many good teams in the Patriot League,” Bauer said. “There’s not really a bad team that you play. Every single team has its own strengths, its own weaknesses, so it really helps in postseason. You learn who needs what and all that.”

Bauer and the rest of the Bulldogs will once again rely on that tough regular-season slate to help guide them into the postseason, as they look to replicate the success they saw throughout a 25-4 2021. She will serve as their top killer queen as well as their No. 1 blocker after collecting 184 kills and 61 blocks during her junior season. Senior libero Jayden Nation will take charge of the defense after pacing the Bulldogs with 248 digs last year. Freshman setter Kaitlin Smith will once again command the net after pulling together 480 assists in her first season.

University is already off to a great start, having defeated Mead in its first match of the season. Next, the Bulldogs will go head-to-head against Palmer Ridge and Longmont in a neutral tournament that begins on Friday.