The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Record stands at 14-1 in league, 14-4 overall
The Crested Butte varsity volleyball team had another successful week last week, traveling more than 11 hours when all was said and done, and adding another five wins to its record.
The first win came as the Lady Titans made the trip to Moffat and defeated the Cowboys for the second time in four days. Game one sent senior Chelsea Dill on a six-point serving run and had the Crested Butte hitters dominating, with nine kills overall and senior tri-captain Kaitlin Councilman picking up all nine assists.
Games two and three held more of the same, with junior Sydney Loyed slamming down eight kills in the two games, sophomore Karleigh Dean another five, and Councilman putting down two kills and contributing 18 assists. Dill went on another serving run in the third, with nine straight serves and two aces.
Coach Marla Covey said, “The team played well enough to secure the victory, but I was not satisfied with our level of concentration or our level of play overall.”
Despite Covey’s dissatisfaction, the Titans defeated the Cowboys in straight games, 25-11, 25-22, 25-23.
Four days later, the Titans made their second trip of the season to Blanca for an all-day tournament and brought home another four wins.
Missing Councilman and senior tri-captain Katie Vandervoort in the first match against Holy Trinity, sophomores Shannon Holleran, Asya Stillo and Dean and juniors Kelsey Beltz and Allison Turner saw some playing time early in the day. Beltz went 100 percent from the service line and Turner picked up a number of passing errors to save critical points. Junior Hillari Spencer stepped into the setting spot and came up with 15 assists on the match, which the Titans won 25-14, 25-13, 25-10.
In the second match against the Aguilar Wildcats, the Titans dropped the first game 19-25, coming up with only four kills, serving 80 percent, and never going on a notable scoring run. But with Councilman and Vandervoort back on the court for the second game, the momentum shifted. With 49 spike attempts and seven kills, the Titans’ hitting arms were just getting warmed up.
After winning the second game 25-21, they came out and crushed the third 25-15, then took the fourth 25-22, with another nine kills and 38 spike attempts.
The third and fourth matches against Centennial and Primero proved to be two more routs for the Titans, with Crested Butte winning in straight games 25-9, 25-8, 25-13, and 25-7, 25-7, 25-9.
Against Centennial, the Titans’ serving improved dramatically, and senior tri-captain Mackenzie Mailly had seven kills over the course of the match. And in the final match of the day, Beltz put down four kills and libero player Asya Stillo served 13 points in a row to dominate Primero.
“Four matches in one day is long and tiring, but good training for post-season play,” said Covey. ”Stepping back and looking at the day overall, our focus improved match by match, and our younger players got to see significant court time. We won every match and kept ourselves at the top of our league. It was a good day.”
The Titans take on Creede in their final home match on Friday, October 17 at 6 p.m.
