The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I’ve seen what this team is capable of when they decide to turn it on”
by Than Acuff
The good news, the Crested Butte Titans took a game off the perennial 2A powerhouse and league leading Del Norte Tigers for the first time since 2021. Unfortunately, they couldn’t build off that milestone and fell to the Tigers 3-1 on the road on Friday, October 2. They recovered the following day to roll to a 3-0 win over the Trinidad Miners at home.
The Tigers have always been one of the strongest programs in the region and are often in the mix at the state tournament. That said, the Titans are on a roll this year and looked to disrupt Del Norte’s hold.
“Our mindset going in was to play our game and make sure to keep energy high,” says head coach Cierra Abbott. “Be smart with the ball and minimize unforced errors.”
Consistency was key for Del Norte as they took the first two games of the match, but Crested Butte refocused and opened the third game determined to change the momentum. Paced by kills from Grace Williams and Mia O’Neil and strong net play led by blocks from Haley Roberts to build an 8-3 lead.
“We were able to gain our confidence back and finally get some things rolling,” says Abbott.
Del Norte did battle back into the game to tie it up and the two teams traded points with Crested Butte taking a slight 20-18 lead. They traded points again, but pinpoint passing and sets offered up kills from O’Neil down the stretch and Crested Butte took the third game 25-21. Del Norte’s consistency would eventually spell Crested Butte’s demise though as the Tigers won the fourth game and the match. Roberts finished the match with five blocks and 15 digs, Haley Erickson provided 32 assists and combined with Barbara Siquera for 24 total digs while O’Neil finished with 27 kills.
“We did some really great things and Roberts had a phenomenal game, coming away with five blocks and 15 digs is no easy feat, but we had avoidable mistakes,” says Abbott. “We never should have lost sets one and two, but nerves got to the girls, and we didn’t capitalize when we should have, and Del Norte was able to finish and capitalize on opportunities we weren’t. It’s hard to come away from those matches knowing that skill wise, you are the more talented team, but chemistry wise, we just couldn’t find a rhythm early enough.”
Crested Butte returned home to host the Trinidad Miners on Saturday, October 3 looking to get back on the winning track.
“I wanted to see them just play,” says Abbott. “Before the game, during our chalk talk, I told them a saying one of my coaches told me in HS that stuck with me which is ‘don’t think, just do.’ The whole principle behind this saying is to trust your training and trust that you know what to do without overthinking.”
It took a bit for the Titans to get going winning the first two games 25-18, 25-20 but then dropped the hammer in the third game to win 25-8 and take the match. O’Neil and Williams led the team in kills with 23 and 11 respectively with freshman Lilia Deines adding in five kills. Erickson provided the sets for the kills with 24 assists on the day, and freshman Jaime Moran recorded three aces.
“Going into the third set, we had a conversation about the importance of keeping the ball and staying in our strongest rotations for the longest time possible,” says Abbott. “They did a great job of executing on that and not letting the other team rush us through our rotations before we can capitalize and push points in our strongest rotations.”
The Titans return to the road this week to face Dolores on Thursday, October 8 who have been crushing opponents for much of the season. That said, the Titans are looking to cause a ruckus in Dolores.
“The plan heading into that match is to just play tough, fun, competitive and gritty volleyball,” says Abbott. “If you start to focus on too many things, the girls start to panic and lose sight of what really matters. I think that we can compete very well against Dolores, but it’s going to take 100% buy-in from every player on the team, understanding and accepting their roles and not letting that impact team chemistry, and the six players on the court giving 110% for every single point.”
Following the Dolores match the team enters the school’s October break and Abbott is giving them the week off before turning it up another notch as they head into the final stretch of the regular season.
“I just want the girls to have a week to reset in school, in sports and socially,” says Abbott. “I’m hopeful we will come back from break rested, recovered and ready to hit the ground running. I’ve seen what this team is capable of when they decide to turn it on. It’s gotta be full throttle for the rest of the season.”
