Titans’ volleyball wins two of three matches in opening weekend

Young team steps up to challenge

Labor Day weekend saw the Titan volleyball teams head in different directions as the JV and C teams went to Montrose for a tournament and the varsity packed up for a road trip to Cripple Creek for the Pioneer Classic.
The Titans faced the South Park Burros in the first match of the tournament. It was the Titans’ first test of the new team, with four new starters, including several players getting their first varsity experience.
The Titans and the Burros battled point for point, while it appeared both teams struggled to shake off the first-match jitters and find a rhythm. Crested Butte had a small lead at 21-19 before a couple of costly mental errors allowed the Burros to take the lead. The Titans showed some grit and battled hard but dropped the first set 22-25.
The second set provided a similar point for point battle for a majority of the set. A few of the Titans started finding their power with both senior Leila Nichols and sophomore Isabel Young leading the Titans in kills, with 5 and 8. Unfortunately, mental errors plagued the Titans, demonstrated by eight missed serves, and proved the difference in the match as the Titans dropped the second set 23-25 and match in a best of three-tournament format.
The Titans regrouped to take the court against the Cotopaxi Pirates, a smaller but very defensive-minded team. The Titans looked to use the match to communicate more consistently, which should help to reduce some of costly mental errors that plagued the Titans in the prior loss.
After exchanging point for point throughout most of the first service rotation, co-senior captain Courtney Kopf served up a four-point rally initiating a momentum shift for the Titans. A couple of key blocks from both Leila Nichols and sophomore Emilya Ramsey helped the Titans hold serve and take the lead. Some strong service points by Nichols and senior co-captain Brittany Barefield gave the Titans a first set win of 25-18. Capitalizing on the confidence from the first set victory, the Titans put together some rallies earlier in the second set to win 25-16 and secured their first victory of the season.
The Titans squared off against the Peyton Panthers, a 2A team in the Black Forest League, in the third match of the day. The Panthers were a taller team but still defensively minded. Long rallies force young teams to deal with pressure, learn to work together and hopefully learn how to play both hard and smart. Kopf started the Titans off with a 5-1 lead with a run of strong serves. Following the initial surge both teams began really battling. Long, hard-fought rallies would allow each team to mature because each team would have to learn how to earn points by finding ways to finish points. Solid serve receive passing from junior co-captain Ericka Bremer and junior Madison Lambert provided the Titans some offense opportunities and the Titans held on to win the first set 25-21.
The second set was another battle but some weak passing midway and near the end of the set provided Peyton with opportunities to rack up some easy kills against the Titans. Tied at 19-19, one strong Panther server proved decisive and the Titans dropped the second set 22-25.
The third set in a best of three tournament would prove another pressure test for the young Titans. With the final decisive set to only 15 points, the mindset for both teams is limit runs and work to get and hold a lead as early as possible. Paced by some strong defensive plays, the fifth server for the Titans Emilya Ramsey served the Titans to a small 11-9 lead before the Titans were able to finish off the Panthers 15-10.
The Titans gambled and walked away from Cripple Creek with a 2-1 record in their opening weekend. On Saturday, September 6 the Titans varsity head to Center for matches against league opponents Cripple Creek and host Center.