The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“They played the best they’ve played all season”
by Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Titans volleyball team opened the season winning two of four matches during a preseason tournament. Since then they’ve struggled losing the next round of matches as they faced some of the toughest league opponents. They hit a low point when they dropped a match to Center, a team they could have beaten.
Now, it appears, the team is back on track as they took down Cripple Creek in straight sets and then battled to a five-set win over the South Park Burros.
Coach Heather Perry knew the Cripple Creek match on Friday, September 22 would be somewhat easy and she used the opportunity to move one player to a new position. That one move threw the Titans into disarray. While the Titans won the first two sets 25-20 and 25-17, it wasn’t pretty.
“Even though I moved one player, you would’ve thought I had moved everyone, the way they were playing,” says Perry. “Neither of those two sets were something the team felt good about.”
The Titans pulled out of their confusion in the third set to win 25-3 and take the match.
“We got our stuff together and served strong,” says Perry. “Better late than never. It was nice to win a match but I don’t think it was something they really felt good about.”
The Titans returned to the court on Saturday, September 23 to face South Park. South Park is one of those teams that the Titans can beat, if they play well, or lose to if they lose their focus.
“All week we talked about minimizing our own errors and we practiced pressure situations to get ready for South Park,” says Perry.
Crested Butte dropped the first game to South Park 22-25 but came back to win the second game 25-21. The third game was tight but South Park edged out a 25-23 win leaving the Titans on the cusp of another close loss.
Instead, the Titans refocused to win the fourth game 25-17 and carried their momentum to win the fifth and deciding game 15-12 and take the match.
Junior Sophie Hall led the Titans all over the court with 26 serves, 16 digs and 18 serve receptions.
“It was really Sophie’s stand-out day,” says Perry. “She served well, passed well, she was the MVP.”
Junior Maisy Ramsey gained confidence in her new spot, attacking from the left to fire off 14 kills and senior Catherine Washburn had 28 assists.
“They played the best they’ve played all season,” says Perry. “When they put their heads down and minimize errors, they can stay in the match. It was a good day. We needed that.”
The team will host two matches this coming weekend. They face the Sargent Farmers in mighty Mt. Olympus on Friday, September 29, with the match starting at 3:30 p.m. They then host South Park on Saturday, September 30 starting at 11 a.m.
