The Woodland Park High School girls’ volleyball team is looking to gain momentum heading into next week’s regional playoffs.

The Panthers will end their regular season with back-to-back road games Thursday and Friday at Coronado and Discovery Canyon, respectively. Both opponents are ranked in the top 10 in the state among all Class 4A teams.

Woodland Park is ranked 13th.

“I’m very excited to play teams that raise our level of competition,” said Woodland Park senior outside hitter Ally Tring, who is third on the team in kills. “This will show us how good we are. This could set us up really well for regionals.”

Woodland Park (11-1 overall, 10-1 in the 4A Metro League South Division) has not had much competition in its conference, except for Coronado. The Cougars defeated Woodland Park in four sets on April 6 to claim a stranglehold on first place.

Coronado is ranked eighth in the state in the composite volleyball rankings that determine seeding for the regionals. The top eight teams host the one-day event that will include three teams. Discovery Canyon is ranked 11th.

The postseason tournament has been reduced from 36 to 24 teams this season. Each regional is a three-team winner-take-all bracket.

“We’re going to get the girls pumped up and ready to go wherever we go for regionals,” said Woodland Park coach Stacy Roshek, who is in her 14th season at the helm.

The matches against Coronado and Discovery Canyon are especially important heading into the postseason. The Coronado match is for a share of the league championship.

Discovery Canyon is only the second nonleague opponent the Panthers have faced during the regular season. The other was Air Academy, who along with Discovery Canyon, plays in the very tough 5A/4A Pikes Peak Athletic Conference. The PPAC also features the state’s top two teams in Cheyenne Mountain and Palmer Ridge.

“We need to keep our composure and be strong mentally,” said Woodland Park junior outside hitter Grace McClintock. “If we make mistakes, we have to move on and forget about it.

“If we play with a chip on our shoulders, we can go to state.”

Woodland Park senior middle blocker Trinity McAbee has been pleasantly surprised at how well the team has gelled this season.

“Things were kind of choppy, but you could see the flow of the team as we played more games and got more confident with each other,” said McAbee, the team leader in kills and blocks. “We have the ability to go really far. We have a lot of potential.”

The Panthers have not played in the state tournament since 1992. They came close in 2018 and 2019, when they hosted regionals. Each year they were within one match of advancing to state. Panthers’ teams were a combined 42-8 those two seasons.

This year’s state tournament is scheduled for May 10-11 at NORCO Volleyball Facility in Loveland.

“We’re a consistent team, but we can be even more consistent,” said Woodland Park sophomore libero Sydney Roshek, the coach’s daughter. “If we don’t let things get to us we can do very well.”

The future looks bright for the Panthers. In addition to Roshek, there are three other sophomores on the team — Kayla Stimits, Giana Roskam and Kyra Kidd — as well as junior Savannah Roshek (the coach’s older daughter).

The other seniors on the team are Lauren Ingalsbe (a co-captain with Tring), Patrice Schnierle and Kyla Wells.

“We’ve got a great group of young girls coming up,” Stacy Roshek said.