The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Tough day against league’s best
An early bus left Crested Butte on Saturday, September 27 heading for Sanford for matches against two of the top teams in the Southern Peaks League. The Titans day would be tough with a rematch against the Sanford Indians and a second match against the high-powered Sargent farmers.
First on the agenda was a rematch with the Indians. Déjà vu was the overall feeling of the match as the Titans again jumped out with a 25-19 win in the first set against a slow-moving Indian team.
Then, as is becoming the norm this season for the Titans, as the teams switch sides of the court the other Titan team emerges. The “other” team struggles to communicate and looses confidence too quickly. The Titans quickly dropped the second set 10-25 after an initial run by the Indians put the Titans on their heels. Picking themselves up a bit, the Titans battled harder in the second set before losing 17-25. The fourth set provided some long rallies and the Titans brought some more intensity to the set, battling hard before losing 20-25 and dropping the match.
Next the Titans needed to regroup to battle the league leading Sargent Farmers. The Farmers bring a tall line up and intensity to their playing not seen by the Titans this season. Titan practices have brought multiple discussions about competing every point and practicing intensely to make an easy transition from intense practices to intense matches.
While the Titans delivered two of their most intense practices leading up to the matches, the Farmers were going to demonstrate a new level of intensity.
The Titans surprised the Farmers defensively with junior captain Erica Bremer with 12 digs, junior Madison Lambert and sophomore Annie Duryea each with seven digs. Sophomores Isabel Young, Emilya Ramsey and seniors Ariel Kilpatrick and Leila Nichols tried to slow down the Farmer offense by putting up big blocks, often getting several key touches and blocks. In addition to solid defense, Annie Duryea took the opportunity to up her offensive output with 13 attack attempts, four kills and only one error.
Overall the Titans improved on their serving woes from last weekend, missing far fewer serves in general and also missing fewer critical serves. While still slightly below the 90 percent goal against the Farmers, the Titans served 89 percent with only four missed serves.
While the Titans battled harder and played more as a team than they did against Sanford, they still lost in three straight sets to the Farmers, 14-25, 12-25 and finally 18-25.
Now it will be up to the Titans to figure out how to increase their level of intensity every practice as they strive to compete more consistently each match. This weekend the Titans hit the road again for a tri-match in Cripple Creek. The Titans will be seeking to avenge a five-set loss to the Center Vikings and take the series against the struggling Cripple Creek-Victor Pioneers.
