Titan girls fall short of regionals after winning first playoff round

Break the home court curse

The quest for a home win continued last weekend as the Titans hosted the Antonito Trojans for a match on Friday, October 21 in mighty Mt. Olympus. The first home victory would also mean the Titans would host the first round of District playoffs on Monday, October 24.
The Trojans are typically smaller in stature but play with tenacity and have proven difficult to put away in the past. The first set found the Titans struggling to find any consistency but they worked to edge out Antonito 26-24. In the next set the Titans found a little more rhythm. With the Titans up 14-11, sophomore Lindsey Kopf found her groove from behind the service line pushing the Titans to a 20-11 lead. The Trojans, never done fighting, battled back to 18-23 before the Titans were able to put it away 25-19.
The final set of the match was also a battle with the Trojans able to pick up the Titans hits and force the Titans into making errors. The Titans held on to win the final set of the match 25-22 and finally obtained that elusive first home victory of the season.
On Saturday, the Titans hosted the Paonia Eagles. The Titans knew that Paonia (11-7) always fields a strong, athletic team and lead the 2A Western Slope League. After struggling for several weeks to find consistent play, the Titans started the match playing with confidence and stayed with the Eagles in the first set battling every point. At 23-23, Kopf continued to find her serving groove and was able to finish off the Eagles with a 25-23 win.
But, the Eagles were not going to fly away without a fight. The next set proved to be another battle, with no team able to capture much of a lead. Through the first rotation, the teams stayed with two points of each other. Tied at 21, the Eagles got a crucial side and served out the match 25-21. Each set seemed to bring longer rallies and more tension for both teams. The Eagles held a slight lead for most of the third set before the Titans lost 19-25. Leading the match 2-1, the Titans had again put themselves in a must-win situation. Throughout the season, the Titans struggled with confidence in this situation and the goal was to battle hard and limit mental mistakes. While the Eagles edged out the Titans 21-25, the Titans remained confident and battled each point.
Senior co-captain Toni Brown lead the team with 12 kills, followed by sophomore Lindsey Kopf with six kills and 10 service points. Senior Skylar Kraatz added eight kills and eight blocks. Junior Sara Sherman added another six kills and senior Klara Wohlers found holes in the Eagle defense and picked up her season-best five kills. Senior Natalie Bowen added eight service points to the victory. Finding confidence to battle each point and playing a tough team consistently was what the Titans had been missing for several matches. Now the goal was to take that confidence and grit into the post season.
Now entering the post-season, the Titans hosted Antonito again in their first ‘win or go home’ scenario. The Titans’ goal for the match was to keep the “battle-every-point” mind-set as they did against Paonia. Winning the serve, the Titans started the match strong as Kopf served 12 straight points, forcing the Trojans to use both timeouts to try to stop the streak. As always, the Trojans were not going to quit and battled hard to get back into the set but the Titans held on to a 25-19 win.
Once again the Titans wanted to maintain the battle mentality and worked hard to increase the margin of victory to 25-16. The Trojans seemed to lose their momentum in the third set and the Titans worked to play consistently, winning the set 25-14. Toni Brown picked up 12 kills and Kraatz another eight kills. Kopf continued her serving groove, getting 15 service points in the match. Bowen patrolled the back row, picking up most of the Trojan hits all night. Sophomore Monika Olesen made a couple of athletic plays and made one great save at the net. Sophomore defensive specialists Rosie Ewert and Ali McGuire worked hard to pick up a number of Trojan tips. Freshman Brittany Barefield got her feet wet in her varsity match, too.
The Titans post season run at districts came to a screeching halt though as they fell to Sangre de Cristo in straight sets on Tuesday, October 25, dashing their shot at regionals.