Lewis-Palmer and Palmer Ridge’s student sections spent more than 30 minutes chanting and attempting to find where the party was.

By the game’s conclusion, Rangers fans flooded the floor at Palmer Ridge to let the Bears know the party is at Lewis-Palmer. The No. 2-ranked Rangers swept the Bears 25-18, 25-13, 25-13 to win the Battle for Monument.

“I’m extremely happy that the chant is over but happier we got the win,” Lewis-Palmer’s Madi Crowe said. “It was hard to hear my teammates over the chant, but it was funny and we did really well out there.”

Rangers coach Don Lash gushed over his team’s performance and how they’ve meshed during their eight-game winning streak.

“We’ve worked really hard for this,” Lash said. “The girls wanted this so much. They practice hard and take care of each other. Our defense makes the offense work and everyone worked together tonight.”

Lewis-Palmer (8-3) started the year 0-3 following a 26-4 finish in 2023. The Rangers returned just four players from last season’s team – Crowe, Brooke Gennerman, Maddie Sanderson and Keira Lunn.

L-P also faced a barrage of loaded squads to start the season in Chaparral, Mountain Vista and Thompson Valley, which have a combined 32-3 record.

“The girls have grown and matured a lot since then,” Lash said. “We started with a lot of new girls and only had four returners. They’re starting to battle out there and they showed that (Thursday.)”

Against Palmer Ridge, the 4A defending state champs, the Rangers set the tone and didn’t trail in the first two sets.

Each time the Bears began to establish their offense, Crowe or Gennerman came up with a timely block or kill to thwart Palmer Ridge.

Crowe finished the first set with a block and, in the second set, the Rangers junior earned a kill to make it 22-10 and rejected a spike to give Lewis-Palmer game point.

“We came in the huddle and talked about what we should run and what spots we have open,” Crowe said. “We had the mentality that we wanted to kill and we went out there and did that.”

The Rangers faced a hint of adversity in the final set when the Bears took leads of 2-1 and 3-2 – Palmer Ridge’s lone leads of the night – but the Rangers swiftly erased those deficits.

Paige Balman scored an ace to give the Lewis-Palmer a 4-3 lead, which eventually grew to 7-4 and forced Palmer Ridge to call a timeout.

“We go over that a lot in practice,” Lash said. “We do a lot of adversity training and in practice, we have a scoreboard where the girls are behind and we say, ‘OK, you have to overcome this and get to the finish line.’”

Gennerman ensured the Rangers maintained their set lead with a pair of blocks and kills late in the final set to stave off the Bears comeback attempt, which allowed Lewis-Palmer to cruise to the set victory.

“Having my teammates tell me what’s open and finding the open spots really helped,” Gennerman said. “We worked together as a team and when they took the lead, we worked to make sure we didn’t get down on ourselves. We picked up our energy and made sure that didn’t affect us.”

Since dropping their first three games, the Rangers have just one set loss, which came Sept. 7 against Platte Valley, a match Lewis-Palmer won 2-1.

The Rangers’ 15 consecutive set wins is their best mark since they started last season with 18 set victories in a row.

Palmer Ridge faces Lewis-Palmer again Oct. 15 at Lewis-Palmer where the Bears hope to hand their rivals a loss.

But the Rangers believe they’ve found their groove on the court.

“We’ve hit the gas as a team,” Crowe said. “We want to keep getting better and I feel like we’re doing that.”