Titans’ volleyball continues to struggle at home

Close regular season this weekend

While most teams seem to relish and take full advantage of their home matches, this season the Titans have been plagued with the home gym blues. Yet the Titans seemed determined to end the 0-3 home court record against the Sargent Farmers last Saturday. Additionally, the Titans could secure a chance to host a first or second round of Districts with a victory.
The Titans beat the Farmers earlier in the season and most sports experts would have given the edge to the Titans. Unfortunately, the Titan home court disadvantage and the end of break week appeared to cause more problems than expected.
In too often typical fashion, the Titans could not jump out early with intensity to dominate a team they had beaten easily earlier this season. Each team seemed to just toy with the other through the first rotation and that seemed to give the Farmers confidence to play with the Titans. Then several mental errors by the Titans gave the Farmers a 17-13 edge.
While the Titans battled to stay with the Farmers, some well-placed shots by the Farmers further frustrated the Titans and Crested Butte dropped the first set 18-25. The frustrations in the second set resulted in the same score and gave the Farmers with a 2-0 lead.
Down two sets to zero, the Titans were going to have to show some guts to try to take the momentum and confidence back from the Farmers. Showing some grit, the Titans battled and were able to edge the Farmers in the third set 25-23. The fourth set proved a back and forth battle.
Down 7-8, junior Sara Sherman stepped back and served four straight, including one ace to put the Titans up 11-8. One rotation later, sophomore Lindsey Kopf placed several key serves that put the Titans up 14-11. After several long rallies the score was tied at 19-19 with the Farmers back at the service line. Unfortunately, the Titans struggled passing consistently and lost the final set 19-25.
Senior co-captains Skylar Kraatz and Toni Brown led the team with 10 kills each, followed closely by Sherman with six kills. Kraatz and Sherman added to their strong season blocking stats. Kraatz racked up six more blocks and Sherman added seven more to her season totals. Missing a couple of critical serves, the Titans as a team served 88 percent on the day.
The Titans need to figure out a way to win at home quickly with the final two regular season matches of the season this weekend. On Friday, October 21 the Titans will host the Antonito Trojans (1-9). With no JV match, the varsity match is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. Then Saturday, the Titans will host a tough Paonia team (10-6). The Paonia matches start with C team at 1 p.m. followed by JV and varsity. After the final matches of the weekend, a District seeding meeting on Sunday will determine when and where the Lady Titans will begin District play on Monday, October 24.