The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Homecoming game Thursday, September 17 at 5:30 p.m.
by Than Acuff
After coming up short against the Gunnison Cowboys, the Crested Butte Titans volleyball team rallied past the Caprock Academy Eagles and are now 6-3 on the season as they prepare for their Homecoming match on Thursday, September 17 at 5:30 p.m.
The Cowboys are a solid 3A program that has dominated the Titans the past four years without giving up a single set. But Crested Butte looked to change the momentum this year with several seniors, several players rising, and an influx of younger talent.
Their mind shift was evident in the opening set as the Titans fought their way to a 25-22 win and then continued to battle into the second set before falling 25-22.
“Our biggest push as coaches was to fight for their teammates and trust their training,” says head coach Cierra Abbott. “We as coaches have the confidence in our team, but we need them to have that same confidence to be successful.”
Things started to unravel for the Titans in the third set as a string of breakdowns allowed the Cowboys to build a 10-point lead that held until the end leaving the Titans down 2-1 after three sets.
“We shut down on ourselves and gave up,” says Abbott. “We had a few players who worked to keep that energy up, but if even one person lets their emotions control their play, it will impact the whole court. It takes all six players contributing to energy and effort, and if it isn’t all six, it is extremely difficult to compensate and still come out with a win.”
Rather than fold and assume their usual losing role to Gunnison, Crested Butte came back in the fourth set to reassert themselves and give a taste of what they are capable of this season. After exchanging points with the Cowboys, the Titans locked in as a unit to spark a five-point run paced in part by the effort of Grace Williams at the net that put Crested Butte up 9-5 forcing the Cowboy coaches to call a timeout.
While timeouts can often thwart momentum, the Titans remained on the front foot after the break to build on their lead. With great plays at the net from Lilian Voegeli, big hits coming from a variety of angles, blocks from Voegeli and Jo Miller and a couple of aces thrown in, the Titans pulled ahead 21-11. Gunnison did push down the stretch, but the Titans did what needed to be done to close out the 25-21 win and force a fifth and final set.
“We actually had fire,” says Abbott. “We didn’t do anything different to start the game aside from keeping our energy high.”
Unfortunately, the Cowboys managed to build off their late set run in the fourth set to take an early lead in the fifth set and win it 15-5 to take the match. Captain Mia O’Neil led the team with 30 kills and 25 digs. Haley Roberts had a season high of 14 digs while Williams had an impressive 14 kills and 10 digs. Freshman setter Miller finished the match with 41 assists across five sets.
“The takeaway for the team was to understand how much our energy impacted the outcome,” says Abbott. “Volleyball is a mental game, and Gunnison was more mentally tough than we were. We did see some great things, but ultimately, our mental toughness was weak and led to a loss in the fifth set. Statistically, we outplayed Gunnison, but they ultimately won the mental battle.”
“I was really proud of our performance during the Gunnison game,” adds O’Neil. “However, we need to shift our mental game in order to find ways to follow through and win.”
Crested Butte then hit the road to take on the Caprock Eagles on Friday, September 11 and had a slow start to the day falling in the first set 25-20.
“We should not have lost set one, but again, we let our energy drop and it directly affected the difference between a win and a loss,” says Abbott. “We played down to Caprock and let their frantic mindset affect our energy.”
The Titans regrouped to avoid another breakdown, and the coaches shifted some players looking for the right mix. The moves proved fortuitous as the Titans won the next three sets 25-19, 25- 23 and 25-10 to take the match.
“We made some more changes, and that helped to get our energy where it needed to be,” says Abbott. “Lanaea Clifton did an amazing job stepping up when her team needed her and finishing out the match strong and Haley Erickson did an amazing job of doing her job and working to keep team energy high, both from the bench and on the court. The one great thing to see was that with the changes we made, we were able to find an energy flow that worked and were ultimately able to finish.”
The Titans now prepare for their Homecoming match against Mountain Valley on Thursday, September 17 at 5:30 p.m. and a second match as part of Homecoming weekend against Buena Vista on Saturday, September 19 at a time to be determined.
“I expect these games to be tough, and we will need to have high energy, and the fire and determination we have seen sparks of throughout the season,” says Abbott. “This week our main goal will be working in practice to find a line up and on-court flow that keeps energy high from point one to point 25 for all three sets.”
