The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Notches one win out of three matches
by Than Acuff
It’s been a long season for the Titans volleyball team, struggling with injuries, focus, intensity and then October break. With players missing from the varsity line-up, coach Heather Perry called on younger players to step into varsity roles and asked varsity players to take over new roles on the court.
Perry called on her seniors to help with the process, knowing full well that they could easily get frustrated with the situation.
“They definitely showed some leadership,” says Perry “They did a really outstanding job as leaders and did exactly what I asked them to do.”
While the mix made for rather disjointed play, the Titans managed to take down the Center Vikings in four sets on Friday, October 14 before falling in straight sets to both Sargents and Custer County on Saturday, October 15.
While the Vikings posed little trouble for the Titans earlier in the season, the lineup Perry was left with for the recent match did have the potential for trouble. Nevertheless, the team rallied to pull off the win.
“We were a hodgepodge team but we ended up winning,” says Perry.
The Titans cruised through the first two sets winning 25-13 and 25-6, but suffered a lull to drop the third match 25-20 before sealing the match, winning the fourth set 25-16.
“We were kind of messing around and I wanted them to have fun but I think they were having too much fun,” says Perry. “I had to tell them to pull it back together.”
The team ended up serving 12 aces throughout the match while Annie Duryea and Emilya Ramsey led the team with nine kills each. Ramsey also tallied four solo blocks, Nicki Rehberg led the team with 16 digs and Avery Pulley had six assists and 11 digs on the day.
The team then headed back to the San Luis Valley the next day for matches against Sargents and Custer County. Perry was down to six players for both matches and did her best to keep the team positive throughout the tough day.
“I told them to just hang in there, try to have fun, play your hardest and remember you’re a team,” says Perry.
The Titans fell in straight sets in both matches and showed signs of frustration, but made it through the day and are back for a week of workouts as they prepare for the post-season opening on Tuesday, October 25.
“My goal for this week is to try to recover, pull it together and have one solid week of practices and show up at the match and play well,” says Perry. “If we do that I would feel good about the end of the season.”
