Castle View the team to beat
Rumors about Castle View volleyball were rampant heading into the season.
The Sabercats are a state championship front-runner, one Continental League rival coach said.
Second-year coach Scott Dowis has his girls on track for something great, another respected Class 5A coach chimed.
Hence, amid such hype, the Sabercats were ranked No. 9 in the preseason power rankings, and were unranked (but receiving votes) in the preseason CHSAANOW poll. People were hearing things — and certain teams had seen what Castle View could do over the summer — but until play began, no one was quite sure what to believe.
Fast forward six weeks, and the Sabercats have proved all the preseason whispers about greatness to be true.
No. 2 Castle View (12-1), on its way to the top spot in next week’s power rankings after defeating No. 1 Mountain Vista in a five-set thriller Tuesday, has yet to lose to an in-state team. In addition to their defeat of the Golden Eagles, the Sabercats posted impressive wins over No. 9 Chaparral, 4A No. 3 Holy Family, No. 7 Chatfield and No. 4 Rock Canyon.
Most of 4A is surprised by the sudden dominance from a program that went 15-10 last season and has only one statetournament appearance to its credit. But Dowis isn’t.
“We hadn’t dropped a set all summer — and we scrimmaged Mountain Vista, Legend and Chaparral during the summer, went to the CU team camp and the DU team camp — and we didn’t drop a set until we played Chaparral at the Regis Jam (on Sept. 1),” Dowis said. “So when people ask if I’m surprised at my team’s performance, I say no, because this is all they’ve done since we got together in June.”
Headlining the red-hot Sabercats is sophomore Leanne Lowry, a phenom libero who committed to Iowa before she even stepped foot on campus in Castle Rock. Her ball control capabilities in the back row catalyze a balanced front row featuring four high-caliber senior hitters in Kate Menz, Ashley Echols, Holly Schmidt and Genna Ryanpiasecki.
But it’s not simply raw talent that has Castle View on track to make a push for the school’s first team state championship in any sport other than coed cheerleading. After all, it’s a lot of the same faces on the court this year as last year — only in 2017, the team has been able to get past chemistry issues that previously plagued the roster.
“What happened this year is that our girls understood that it’s not about being good,” Dowis said. “It’s about driving with your teammates and having each other’s back. We have eight seniors who were all pretty much on the team last year, and they all have learned from that experience. We’ve been really intentional about trying to create a better community for our team.”
With that sense of community comes buy-in to a particular set of goals the Sabercats have plastered all over their gym, locker room and respective homes. It serves as a daily reminder that while Castle View has already marked itself as the team to beat this year, there’s still lots of volleyball to be played heading into the state tournament Nov. 10-11 at the Denver Coliseum.
“Our goal is to win state,” Dowis said. “We set that goal early on in the season, and I think we’re pretty open about it. We use a white board every day in practice, and right next to that white board is our goal sheet with all of our goals and the processes of how we’re going to accomplish them. That sheet is also in our locker room, and it’s also hanging up in our girls’ bedrooms or bathrooms where they can look at it everyday.”
Kyle Newman: 303-954-1773 knewman@ denverpost.com or @Kylenewmandp