The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“We were much better engaged from first point to last than we had been in matches past”
by Than Acuff
After a solid week of training, the Crested Butte Titans volleyball team got back to action with a resounding straight set win over the South Park Burros on Saturday, September 5 improving to 5-2 on the season.
The Titans opened the season with a series of six matches both on the road and at home leaving little room for focused training so when they had a full week off from competition, they got down to work.
“It was a great week to work out some potential lineups as well as being able to spend some intentional time on the mental side of the game as well,” says coach Cierra Abbott. “We were able to slow down and break apart the game in ways we usually wouldn’t get to with a two-game week.”
The Titans then returned to action with a match against South Park, a team Crested Butte has seen success against the past several years. Given the match up, Abbott called on her players to focus on their game rather than the opponents.
“My number one goal for the team going into Saturday’s match was to play our game,” says Abbott. “I challenged the girls to keep the pressure on from the first serve to the last, and I felt they did a better job executing that than in matches past.”
Case in point, the opening game of the match. The Titans went to work immediately setting a furious pace and moving the ball quickly to set up Mia O’Neil for a series of hits overwhelming the Burros and rolling to a 25-3 win.
“We were able to run a faster offense that we’d worked on in practice which was great,” says Abbott. “My second goal was to minimize errors and better the ball, which we did a better job at as well than our previous games.”
South Park did a better job at the start of the second game to shut down O’Neil at the net and match Crested Butte’s intensity through the first 10 points as the two teams were locked up 5-5. But Crested Butte is no one trick pony and when Lilian Voegeli and Grace Williams started to find success with their hits to put the Titans back out front as they finished the second game with a 25-13 win.
“South Park made the adjustment and took away the neutral swing on our hitters, so our hitters adjusted and started to move the ball farther down the line and deeper into the cross-court corner,” says Abbott. “We also worked on some quicker sets in this game which took a bit of an adjustment on our side while we worked the kinks out, but the hitters did a great job letting the little mistakes go and having fun. The girls didn’t let those get to them and trusted the process which resulted in great things.”
South Park put up another fight to open the third game holding Crested Butte to a two-point lead early on. But when a long rally resulted in a big hit from Williams, the Titans started rolling again to go on a 13-1 scoring run paced by some blocks by Haley Roberts and continued hitting from O’Neil, Williams and Voegeli. The final testament to the Titans’ focus came in the final point of the match as Barbara Siqueira came up with a massive dig to keep the ball alive eventually resulting in another block from Roberts to win the game 25-9 and seal the match win.
“We were much better engaged from first point to last than we had been in matches past,” says Abbott. “There is still room to grow in this area, but I am very happy with the progress we’ve made. This coaching staff, with well over 30 combined years of coaching and playing experience at all levels, is a big reason we’ve been able to stay locked in through each point on the court, something we struggled with in our first few matches of the season.”
While the Titans enjoyed success from their hitters, it takes setters and passers to make it happen and Abbott touts the work of the team including freshman setter Jo Miller.
“With our primary varsity setter out, she’s been thrown into a very unfamiliar environment and Jo has really stepped up,” says Abbott. “I also have to shout out our passers as well, because they have been working so hard in practice to stay disciplined in serve receive and on defense. They have really cleaned up our passing which has helped Jo to engage our whole offense.”
The Titans have two big road matches this week against Gunnison and Caprock Academy and Abbott looks forward to the challenges ahead.
“We are expecting some good competition this week,” says Abbott. “I think that both of these matches are going to be competitive, and the team definitely wants to go out and play hard. They will both be tough games, and I can’t wait to see how things shake out.”
