Lady Titans serve up South Park a loss in district play

Fall to Vail Christian

After a series of losses over the past several weeks, the Lady Titans sprung back to action on Friday, October 19 as they traveled to South Park to kick off their three-match weekend.

Finally back at full strength with all six starter

s on the court, Crested Butte showed the 2A South Park Burros a much higher level of intensity as they geared up for the district tournament.

“It’s been really tough to be missing a large percentage of our team for the past week and a half,” said coach Marla Covey. “It was out of the frying pan and into the fire for a lot of our young players, and while they stepped up and showed promise for the future, you just can’t turn a switch and come up with the chemistry the more experienced girls share.”

The South Park match proved to be a hitting-fest for the Titans, with 18 kills and another 50 hits, only a handful of which missed their targets. Senior co-captain Emma Coburn, junior Katie Vandervoort, and sophomore Sydney Loyed all strung together lengthy serving streaks throughout the match, adding several aces to their tallies for the season and boosting their overall serving percentages. The Titans took the match in straight games, 25-23, 25-16, and 25-23.

The next morning against 2A Vail Mountain, though, the Titans didn’t show such spunk, losing in three games 2-25, 19-25, 16-25.

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. If we called a ball out, it was in; if we called it good, it was headed out. About all I can say is that Kaitlin [Councilman] had a killer single block,” said Covey. “We’re deleting that game from our memories.”

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After their disconcerting morning, the Titans headed over to Vail Christian, ranked in the top five in the state. Coburn had to rush to make the match after competing in the regional cross-country meet in Basalt, but made it she did—with a freshly sprained ankle.

“When I heard she’d sprained her ankle again, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, especially after the early match,” said Covey. “But Emma was determined to play, and she had one of her best matches of the season.”

Though she didn’t start in her final regular season game, Covey subbed Coburn in quickly, and Coburn quickly blocked a Vail Christian hit.

“She was jumping as high as I’ve seen her jump,” Covey said. “She had six blocks in that match. Six blocks with a sprained ankle!”

Councilman, too, put on a good show against the aggressive—and tall—Saints. Covering every inch of the court, she saved endless passes from dropping, set up 18 Titan kills, and had only one service error.

And sophomore Hillari Spencer switched back to her normal defensive position after stepping into the setter position while Councilman was gone. Plus, she saw some time in the front row in the first game.

Covey said, “With Kaitlin passing up a lot of first balls, having Hillari as her opposite was our good luck. She took a ton of sets, and you could tell she was comfortable in that position. Hillari had a perfect service game, some digs, some assists, and even a 5’4” block. She played an outstanding match.”

But even with so many players playing so well, the Titans could never finish off a game, finally losing 21-25, 20-25, and 21-25.

“We had the lead in every single game,” said Covey. “I’m so happy with our girls’ overall play, and I truly believe we can take that level of intensity into districts. But we have to get over that last hurdle. We have to put some games away.”

At the end of regular season play, the Titans’ record is 9-10. They travel to Olathe Friday and Saturday, October 26-27 for the district tournament.