Titans spikers battling for home court advantage

Need to finish strong to host district matches

The Titans are holding steady in the middle of the pack in the Southern Peaks 2A League. The final few matches of the season this week will determine whether the Titans have to play the initial District matches on the road or at home. Knowing these facts, the Titans face several teams battling for the same chance to host or hit the road for the post season.
The Titans began the weekend with a home match against the Thunderbirds from Sangre De Cristo. The T-birds have a strong program having gone to the state tournament the last two years and getting fourth in the state tourney in 2009. Despite having graduated several key players, the T-birds come from a program that knows how to win.
Friday, the Titans started slow, which has been their Achilles’ heel all season. After dropping the first two sets 17-25 and 18-25, the Titans woke up and started working together as a team. They won the third set 25-22 with some strong serving, as junior Sydney Jernigan and senior Shannon Holleran contributed three key service points, and sophomore Cassidy Dodds finished the set with five points.
Then the Titans battled the T-birds winning the fourth set 25-19 and seemed to be riding the momentum wave into the final fifth set of the match. Junior starter Toni Brown was unable to enter the final set due to illness, so in a tough situation junior Emily Talbot jumped off the bench to contribute for the Titans.
Each team battled every point and no team was able to make a run. Dodds was able to serve the Titans to an 8-6 lead, but the T-birds battled back again. After some epic rallies, the Titans dropped the final set 14-16. In their final regular season home match, Holleran contributed 13 kills and one ace and senior co-captain Karleigh Dean added six kills and six blocks. Defensive specialist senior Asya Stillo contributed eight points and three key digs.
The Titans then hit the road to play the Paonia Eagles on Saturday, October 9. Paonia is a non-league conference 2A match for the Titans and have always proven to be a very competitive team. This year proved no different.
The Titans once again came out of the gates slowly with no enthusiasm. Missing serves and hitting long, the lifeless Titans sputtered along the first two sets losing 14-25 and 16-25. The team was not playing like the same team that battled the T-birds in the final three matches the previous night.
Then in similar fashion to the prior match, the Titans woke up, jumped to an 8-2 lead on a five-point serving run from Holleran. A recovered Brown contributed several key kills and sophomore Sara Sherman battled at the net with a couple of key blocks as the Titans won the third set 25-20.
Unfortunately, the slow start proved too big of hurdle to overcome. Having lost the first two sets, the Titans gave themselves no room for errors. The Titans lost the fourth and final set 21-25. Holleran led the team again with 12 kills, with Dean contributing seven and Brown five. Jernigan served 10 points with two aces in the match.
It is yet to be determined how the two losses will affect the final league standings and district seedings. The post season for the Titans is now not only dependent upon if the Titans can win the final three matches of the regular season, but also how some of the other teams fair the next two weekends.
On Friday, October 15 the Titans hit the road with a much smaller roster due to fall break to battle district contender Custer County and then travel back to match up with second place team in the league, the Sargents Farmers on Saturday.