Dolores volleyball goes back to states

The Dolores High School volleyball team is headed back to the state tournament.

The Bears, the No. 7 seed in Class 2A, swept both of their matches on Saturday at the Region 7 tournament in their own gym, beating Front Range Christian and North Fork in straight sets to take the regional title and one of the 12 places in the 2A state field.

Dolores opened the day at 11 a.m. against No. 30 seed Front Range Christian of Littleton, and the Falcons made the Bears work for it. Dolores edged the first set 25-23, then survived a long second set 29-27 before pulling away 25-13 in the third.

North Fork, the No. 18 seed from Hotchkiss, earned its shot at the Bears by sweeping Front Range Christian 27-25, 25-22, 25-17 in the day’s second match.

In the deciding match, Dolores won the first set 25-17 and then held off the Miners 25-22 in each of the next two to finish the regional 6-0 in sets.

The school posted a photo of the team with the regional plaque on its Facebook page on Saturday evening. “They are headed to state!!!” it said.

The regional title runs Dolores’ winning streak to 17 matches. The Bears are 23-2 on the season and went 8-0 in the San Juan Basin League, counted from the results feed this site publishes. Both losses came on September 12, to Ignacio and Vail Christian, each in five sets.

What comes next

The Class 2A state tournament runs Thursday through Saturday, November 12 to 14, at the Denver Coliseum, where all five classifications play. The Colorado High School Activities Association releases the state brackets on Monday, November 9.

It is the Bears’ second straight trip to state. Last November, Dolores went 1-2 at the Coliseum, with losses to Swink and Sedgwick County, according to MaxPreps’ records of that tournament.

Saturday at Dolores

Match 1: No. 7 Dolores def. No. 30 Front Range Christian, 3-0 (25-23, 29-27, 25-13)

Match 2: No. 18 North Fork def. No. 30 Front Range Christian, 3-0 (27-25, 25-22, 25-17)

Match 3: No. 7 Dolores def. No. 18 North Fork, 3-0 (25-17, 25-22, 25-22)

Final standings: 1. Dolores 2-0 (6-0 in sets); 2. North Fork 1-1 (3-3); 3. Front Range Christian 0-2 (0-6)

Where to check

The bracket and set scores are CHSAA’s own, at chsaanow.com. MaxPreps has the match pages for Dolores against Front Range Christian and Dolores against North Fork. Results from all three schools as they come in are on the Current’s scoreboards page, and the Nov. 2 story has the bracket as it was released.

Update, November 8, 2026: CHSAA has posted the 12-team Class 2A state field, though the bracket itself is still marked “coming soon.” The region winners and their seeds are: 1 Wiggins, 2 Merino, 3 Vail Christian, 4 Centauri, 5 Evangel Christian Academy, 6 Lyons, 7 Dolores, 8 Akron, 9 Yuma, 10 Ignacio, 11 Holyoke and 12 Sedgwick County. Two of them have beaten Dolores this season: Vail Christian and Ignacio, both on September 12. CHSAA says the bracket is released Monday, November 9.

Update, November 9, 2026: the bracket is out, and Dolores opens against Ignacio

The Colorado High School Activities Association released the Class 2A state bracket on Monday. Dolores, seeded seventh, plays No. 10 Ignacio in the first round at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 12, at the Denver Coliseum, 4600 N. Humboldt St. in Denver.

Ignacio is one of only two teams to have beaten Dolores this season; the Bobcats won in five sets in Ignacio on September 12. Both schools are in the San Juan Basin League, where Dolores went unbeaten, so the teams have met before this year.

The win-side draw puts a lot on that first match. The winner of Dolores–Ignacio plays No. 2 Merino at 6:30 p.m. the same evening; the loser drops into the elimination bracket, which starts at 8 a.m. on Friday, November 13. The tournament is double elimination down to a Final Four: a team’s first loss moves it across to the elimination side, and a second loss ends its tournament. The semifinals are at noon and 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 14, and the championship match is at 6 p.m. that evening.

CHSAA says the 8 a.m. match time each day is firm and that every other posted time is approximate, and that matches never start before their posted time. It also says the selection and seeding index published before regionals is the only seeding criteria used for the state brackets.

The other first-round matches on Thursday are No. 8 Akron against No. 9 Yuma at 8 a.m., No. 5 Evangel Christian Academy against No. 12 Sedgwick County at 9:30 a.m., and No. 6 Lyons against No. 11 Holyoke at 11 a.m. The top four seeds — Wiggins, Merino, Vail Christian and Centauri — come in at the second-round stage on Thursday afternoon.

All five classifications play at the Coliseum, so there is no home game for Dolores at state and none has been added to the Current’s events calendar.

Source: CHSAA 2026 Class 2A girls volleyball state bracket, read November 9, 2026

Update, November 10, 2026: how to follow the Bears from home

The state tournament starts Thursday morning, and Dolores is still set for the 12:30 p.m. match against Ignacio; the bracket had not changed when the Current read it again on Tuesday night.

This is the 52nd edition of the state volleyball championships, the Colorado High School Activities Association said in a notice to news outlets on Tuesday. Two things in it matter to anyone who cannot make the trip to Denver:

• Watching. The NFHS Network holds the exclusive television and video webcast rights to all CHSAA postseason events, the association said, and no other live streaming of any match is allowed at the tournament. NFHS Network is a subscription service.
• Results. Official results will be posted at CHSAANow.com; none will be handed out at the arena.

For anyone going: matches at the Denver Coliseum are scheduled on Thursday and Friday at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m., 3:30 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., and on Saturday at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., noon and 6 p.m., with championship and runner-up trophies presented right after each title match. Parking is $15 at the arena or $12.50 in advance through AXS, according to the notice.

The Current will post the Bears’ results as they come in.

Source: Colorado High School Activities Association notice to media, November 10, 2026; Class 2A state bracket, read November 10, 2026

Update, November 12, 2026: Dolores won its state opener. Read the follow-up: Dolores volleyball sweeps Ignacio in its state opener.