The path to title runs through Lewis-Palmer

Despite the retirement of longtime Lewis-Palmer coach Susan Odenbaugh, the pursuit of the Class 4A volleyball title again runs through Monument this fall, where new coach Wade Baxter inherits a Rangers program that is reloaded and ready to make a push for the program’s seventh state championship.

Baxter, Lewis-Palmer’s junior varsity coach for the past nine seasons and the C team coach for three years before that, knows as much.

“I’m operating mostly under the feeling that we’ve been so successful here, for so long, that I’m not really interested in reinventing things,” Baxter said. “Susan and I are different personalities, so we have different ways of running the program or running a practice, but there’s nothing really different in our philosophies about the game. It’s business as usual here.”

Such a seamless coaching transition is bad news for the rest of the classification, especially considering that despite graduating a trio of NCAA Division I players in Lydia Bartalo (Denver), Michaela Putnicki (Penn State) and Elizabeth Reich (Portland), the preseason No. 1 Rangers still have plenty of talent on the roster.

Sophomore libero Gianna Bartalo, Lydia’s sister, is the focal point of a Lewis-Palmer back row renowned for its ball control, while junior hitters Kessandra Krutsinger and Adelaide Feek provide firepower at the net.

But if any two teams are, on paper, capable of getting in the Rangers’ way of a repeat, it’s No. 2 Pueblo West and No. 3 Holy Family.

The Cyclones are chasing their first championship after a deep tournament run last year with a senior-heavy roster featuring setter Brilane Manchego, middle hitter Olivia Sherman, outside hitter MaLeigha Menegatti, middle hitter Emily Hanenberg, right side Chayse Roumph and libero Kelsey Garcia.

“Making it to the Final Four was a progressive step for our program, because now we know what it takes to get there,” Pueblo West coach Casey King said. “Now, we need to learn what it takes to get into that final game, because several of these seniors have been to state two times in three years. We’re taking all that experience and hoping that we can further our program’s evolution — and doing it while knowing 4A is once again going to go through Lewis-Palmer.”

Expectations remain high in Broomfield, as well, where 2016 state runner-up Holy Family looks to senior middle blocker Jody Gallagher, senior middle blocker Julia Giltner, senior right side Rachel Siurek, senior setter Sara Berghoff and sophomore libero Peyton Frank to band together for another run at the program’s first state title.

“We’re keeping the goal the same in terms of getting ourselves in a position to be in that championship match again,” Holy Family coach Krista Solomon said. “A lot of that depends on our big senior class and how much leadership we can get out of them and how we can leverage that with other younger, skilled players.”

Other state tournament contenders figure to be No. 4 Cheyenne Mountain (the Indians are tradition-laden with six titles), No. 5 Valor Christian (the Eagles return their leading hitter in senior Lily Thomason) and No. 6 Thomas Jefferson (junior outside hitter Siale Sandoval will take the Spartans far).