Lady Titans season ends in disappointing losses

Unforced errors plague team

The Crested Butte Lady Titans volleyball team stumbled at the end of their season, losing their last regular season match, and then again in the first round of the district tournament, bringing their season to a premature close.

The Lady Titans headed to Creede for their final league match of the season on Friday, October 23. Win or lose, due to their early season wins the Titans would remain in second place in the Southern Peaks League. The Creede Miners sit middle of the league but Creede is never a team to overlook, particularly at home. The Miners always field a very solid team of strong athletes, and this year is no exception.
The Titans have been struggling for the last four weeks, sliding backwards instead of getting stronger as the post-season approaches. Observers have commented that the talented Titans have been struggling and committing too many unforced errors. The struggles have the Titan team playing below their potential and that has hindered their ability to gel as a team.
The Creede match seemed to shine a spotlight on the problems the Titans have been dealing with in practices and in recent matches. The Titans struggled to even keep the ball in play, committing 11 service errors in the first two sets and allowing the Miners to jump to a 2-0 lead, beating the Titans 13-25 and 11-25.
With a back injury still plaguing senior Sydney Loyed, the lineup changed in the third set, with junior Karleigh Dean moving to left side hitter and sophomore Skylar Kraatz entering the match as middle hitter/blocker. Kraatz seemed to inject some enthusiasm into the lethargic team with some key blocks and two kills. The team showed some mental toughness and committed fewer unforced errors, lowering missed serves to two in the third set and winning 25-19.
At the start of the fourth set the Titans appeared ready to battle with junior Shannon Holleran, getting four kills in the set but then Titans lost focus again, missing six serves and losing the final set 23-25.
The Titans left the Creede gym knowing that time was running out. Coaches are hoping that each player fully understands that individually, each needs to leave the excuses at the gym door and pull together as a team or the post-season will end before it has a chance to get rolling.
Unfortunately, their serving woes continued to plague the Lady Titans, with 18 missed serves in their district game on Tuesday, October 27. Crested Butte came into the match seeded second, paired against the seventh-seeded Moffat Lady Cowboys.
After a slow start in the first game, the Lady Titans rallied off a huge kill by Kraatz. Beltz served the team back into a 17-17 tie and Kraatz struck again with a block to help the lady Titans come from behind to win 25-20.
The Lady Titans then collectively lost focus, dropping the next two games 17-25, 19-25 to fall behind two games to one.
The Lady Titans of old showed up for the fourth game, though. Faced with elimination, they opened the fourth game on fire. Led by solid serving from Holleran and Dean, the Lady Titans jumped out to an 11-3 lead.
In the end the Lady Titans served an impressive 86 percent to roll to a 25-11 win and force a fifth and final game.
The Lady Titans roller coaster then dropped into a freefall. After leading 7-5, the Lady Titans lost ten of the next 13 points to lose the final game 10-15 and thus the match, putting an end to their season.
“We were serving 90-percent at the start of the season and if I hadn’t seen that I wouldn’t be so frustrated,” says coach Marla Covey. “I told them if they just put it in play Moffat would make mistakes. It’s all about unforced errors, and missed serves are a primary example. We do have a lot of talent coming up—I just feel bad for the seniors who worked so hard the past four years.”