The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Rough reboot after break
by Than Acuff
The October break at the school takes its toll on all of the fall sports programs, hitting some harder than others. The Crested Butte Titans volleyball suffered the hardest as a result of the October break as several players missed workouts due to school and family trips. Coach Erin Goggins still held workouts during the end of the break as the Titans would jump right into the fire with a match on Tuesday, October 22 against league standout Sargent.
“The practices were good, there just weren’t many girls,” says Goggins. “But it was helpful to those that showed up.”
As a result, Goggins started numerous JV players for their match against Sargent and while they struggled against the overpowering team, they did show signs of quality play.
“I was hoping for some of the players to step up into leadership roles but no one really helped lead the charge,” says Goggins. “Some of the younger players definitely proved themselves a little bit though.”
With so many of the younger players stepping into a varsity match, it took some time for the team to find any cohesion between the varsity and JV players on the floor and get used to the pace of a varsity match, falling in the first game 12-25.
“I think they were scared a little bit in that first game and it’s a faster pace and they weren’t used to it,” says Goggins.
The Titans picked up their play a notch in the second game. Aimee Heitz and Sami Lakoski each connected for some quality kills and Savannah Freeman followed with a tip and a kill to put the Titans up 4-3.
Unfortunately, despite some gutsy play and extended rallies by the Titans, Sargent was too strong and proceeded to open up a big lead with a 17-3 run. Madison Pankey tipped over another point and the Titans took advantage of some Sargent miscues to recover a few more points but Sargent eventually closed out the game to win again by the same score.
By the third game, Goggins was able to filter in more varsity players but Sargent just continued to pick up steam. In addition, the typically strong serves of the Titans fell by the wayside as they missed five serves making matters worse to lose the third game 9-25 and the match.
Lakoski tallied 16 sets in the match, Pankey had one block and three kills while Freeman had 11 attacks and Georgia Lange finished with two aces.
“Sargent’s a tough team,” says Goggins. “Every part of our game was okay, just not overly exciting.”
The Titans hit the road on Thursday, October 24 to take on Dolores Huerta and then finish the regular season at home against South Park on Saturday, October 26 at 1 p.m.
“They can’t play okay against Dolores so I’m hoping for a better game,” says Goggins. “Hopefully knock out some of the cobwebs and get ready for our last conference game against South Park.”
