Volleyball takes two over Homecoming weekend

Make that four in a row

By Than Acuff

Homecoming weekend can be a good thing or a bad thing for the Crested Butte Titans teams. On the one hand, there’s the excitement. On the other, there’s the nerves. And then there’s the dance.

The Crested Butte Titans volleyball team experienced all of it in their matches Friday and Saturday, September 19 and 20 but the team rallied to rattle off two wins and extend their winning streak to four in a row.

It all started with the Homecoming game on Friday against Ridgway with the Titans staving off nerves to bring energy to the court to open the match.

“The energy was high and full of excitement,” says junior captain Mia O’Neil. “The girls were eager to get started with a full student section helping us work through nerves and play cohesively.”

Channeling the crowd and elements of their game that are in place, the Titans opened the Ridgway match rolling to a 25-13 win in the first game. As the match wore on, the Titans struggled a bit from the service line, but did what needed to be done to win the second game 25-19 and sealed the match victory with a 25-22 win in the third game.

“Towards the last set we started to get a little sloppy and overconfident,” says O’Neil. “But we worked through it.”

“They executed a lot of stuff really well that night,” adds coach Sheri Covey. “We’re really rising offensively.”

Then Homecoming weekend started to take its toll on the Titans as they hit the road on Saturday to face Mountain Valley missing a key player from the rotation. Toss in a bus ride and the impending dance that night and the Titans proved hot and cold on the court. After winning the first two games 25-20, 25-16, Crested Butte found themselves in a deep hole in the third game. The Titans did regroup for a massive rally but eventually fell short 25-20.

“For me, that was impressive,” says Covey. “They didn’t completely quit. We just let off the gas and I was switching things up a lot.”

The brief scare brought the Titans back into focus as they took the floor in the fourth game and while Mountain Valley didn’t go down easily, Crested Butte fought back to take the fourth game 25-23 and win the match with the effort of the two Haleys helping to lead the way.

“Haley Erickson walked in as a good setter as a freshman and I’m excited to have her attitude out there, she is a competitor,” says Covey. “And Haley Roberts came in on Saturday and played so well, just so mentally tough. We just missed too many serves the entire weekend and when we start missing serves, we hand away too many points.”

The Titans now turn their attention to a tough week ahead with a run of stout opponents coming up this week. 

“We have really high-ranking teams ahead,” says Covey. “I think they’re ready mentally it’s just if, physically, they can make less mistakes. It’s about getting things together and staying together.”

“We are getting ready to move game by game through this next week,” adds O’Neil.

They spend the next week on the road with their next home match slated for Thursday, October 2 at 5:30 p.m. against the Custer County Bobcats.