The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Domination in South Park
Complacency has plagued the Titans volleyball team in the past but so far this year it appears they’ve shaken that aspect of their game.
Two weeks ago the Titans faced the South Park Burros and Cripple Creek in a tournament and came away with wins in both matches.
The Titans returned to the road this past weekend to head to South Park to face the Burros and Cripple Creek again.
Having cruised to wins over both teams the week before, the Titans typically took the court lacking intensity to bury their opponents again. In fact, leading into the season coach Marla Covey mentioned that one part of her team she really wanted to change was their penchant for playing down to their opponents.
“We have been working on playing a consistent level on our side of the court and not having our level of intensity be dictated by the opponent across the net,” explains Covey. “The past couple of seasons, the team has demonstrated too much complacency and often lost matches to equally or lesser matched teams because of lack of intensity and focus. Momentum in volleyball can change quickly and the most common way to lose momentum is to relax in a match.”
So far, it appears that work on a mental shift among the Titans has paid off, as the Titans opened league play with a couple of wins over South Park and Cripple Creek.
The Titans came out firing in the first set of their first match against South Park as junior setter Courtney Kopf opened up serving seven straight points. Rather than rest on the laurels of the opening run, the Titans continued to press with strong passing by senior Rosie Ewert, junior Kaitlin Councilman and seniors Marissa Osmundson. Madeline Pulley allowed the Titans to set up a variety of attacks against the Burros all match long.
But there’s more to the game than just offense and the Titans proved stout on defense as well, as senior Monika Olesen ruled the net leading the team with nine kills, followed closely by senior Suzanna Dumas with six kills and senior Miki Olesen with four kills.
The combination of passing and defense paced the Titans to a match win in straight sets 25-10, 25-19, 25-17.
Covey then set the tone for her team in their second match, asking them to work hard rather than look for the easy win.
“We worked with the players to try to get the players to challenge themselves to stay intense and in every point,” says Covey, “challenging the hitters to spike or tip to a distinct place on the court and also challenge the servers to place the serve in various locations, along with other mental challenges.”
The seniors rose to the challenge in the next match against Cripple Creek. Again, rather than rest on the laurels of their opening victory, the Titans kept the meter pegged.
They opened winning the first set 25-12 and then Miki worked her magic from the service line to pace the Titans through the second set. Miki served nine straight points in the second set, including four aces, as the Titans cruised to a 25-10 set win.
While Cripple Creek refused to give up without a fight, the Titans sealed the deal in the third set, winning 25-17 to take the match.
Senior Ali McGuire led the team with six kills followed by Monika with five and Dumas with four in the match.
The Titans will head to Center on Friday and then will host their first match of the season on Saturday, September 14 starting at 11 a.m., with the varsity match slated for noon.
