Titan spikers open league competition with streak of wins

“I was very proud of the entire Titan team today”

The Lady Titans weren’t exactly sure what to expect from their new Southern Peaks opponents as they piled out of two Chevy Suburbans in Blanca on Saturday. But then again, neither did their opponents.

Coach Marla Covey opted for her most experienced line-up for the first match against the Holy Trinity Tigers, with four seniors and two juniors on the court. While the Titans were a bit slow out of the blocks, junior Hillari Spencer came out with six straight points on serve and senior Mackenzie Mailly with two aces to start.
After breezing through the first game 25-16, the Titans came right back out to take the second 25-14, and the third 25-13. While Crested Butte’s nearly 92 percent serving proved to be key in crushing the Tigers, both its offense and defense were nearly flawless, too, with accurate passing on the defensive end and 23 kills on the match.
It turned out that first win gave the Titans all the confidence they needed to go undefeated on the day. Facing a tougher Aguilar in the second match, they swept 25-18, 25-22, and 25-23.
The Titans then faced the host team as they moved to Sierra Grande’s second gym and their most strenuous match of the day.
After taking the first game 25-23 and coming out to a lethargic start to the second with poor passing, Crested Butte was still able to come back from double digits down to lose the second game by only two points.
The Titans lost the second 23-25, and despite eight kills and strong passing, they then dropped the third 22-25, with momentum having shifted to the Panther side.
In the fourth game the Titans proved they wouldn’t lie down from one game down, rattling off 32 spike attempts and no hitting errors.
 The Titans’ higher intensity and perfect serving shut down the Panthers 15-9 to win the match.
But the Titans weren’t done yet—after a long day and the high-intensity match against Sierra Grande, the Titans still had Primero on tap. With a younger line-up overall, sophomores Shannon Holleran, Asya Stillo, and Karleigh Dean and juniors Kelsey Beltz and Allison Turner all stepped up their games to show Covey they had the mental toughness to win games, even after a long day, winning the match 25-10, 25-15, 25-12.
“Knowing we would have a long day of league play, we worked on being mentally tough all week,” says Covey. “We needed every ounce of that toughness to get that big win against a tenacious Sierra Grande team on their home court. We have a number of players who can play in various positions and make positive things happen on the court. It is a great advantage to be balanced so an opponent cannot isolate one player and try to shut us down by stopping one hitter or one server. We need to continue to work on our defense because all of these teams came at us with a lot of different speeds and angles and none of them quit on balls. I was very proud of the entire Titan team today. They worked hard, never got down on themselves or each other and they prevailed together as a team.”
There’s nothing quite like entering a new league and starting league play 5-0. The Titans face Centennial at home on Friday, September 12 at 5 p.m. at the Crested Butte Community School.