Disappointing weekend in South Park for volleyball

“Volleyball is a game that is driven by shifts in momentum”

by Stan Cola

Consistency, intensity and composure are keys to success on the volleyball court and this past weekend the Crested Butte Titans struggled with all three, as they dropped matches to the South Park Burros and the Custer County Bobcats.

The Titans expected a tough match from the Burros, as Crested Butte came back from a 2-0 deficit to rally and take down South Park earlier in the season.

“The Burros were definitely seeking revenge after a tough five-set loss early in the season,” says Titans coach Marla Covey.

The Titans opened slow, dropping the first two sets of the match 25-22 and 25-20. But just as they did the last time the two teams met, the Titans dug in and capitalized on some costly mental errors by the Burros to take the third set 25-11. Crested Butte carried the momentum into the next set to edge out a 26-24 win but then ran out of gas, dropping the fifth and final set 15-11 and losing the match.

“The team continues to struggle with playing with a sustained level of intensity,” says Covey. “We beat the Burros in early September with a big team effort but last weekend it was the entire team that struggled to find whatever ‘it’ is to repeat the task.”

The Titans then lined up to take on Custer County and would suffer again at the hands of inconsistency, intensity and composure. Custer is always a well-coached team that limits their mistakes; a team has to be determined to make fewer mental mistakes to beat the Bobcats.

Unfortunately, the Titans could not rise to the task. The Titans served 87 percent and had more attack errors than kills and had only one block and one block error, falling in straight sets to the Bobcats 25-16, 25-20 and 25-10.

“After the South Park loss we seemed to just check out for the entire match against Custer County,” says Covey. “The entire team struggled collectively.”

The Titans return to Mt. Olympus for matches against Del Norte and Sargent on Saturday, October 17. Matches start at 11 a.m. They remain at home to host Sanford on Tuesday, October 20 at 4 p.m. With only five league matches remaining, the Titans need to try to win some matches to improve their seeding for districts.

“Volleyball is a game that is driven by shifts in momentum,” says Covey. “Lowering dramatic shifts and limiting losses of the momentum to the other team with missed serves and bad decisions greatly reduces a team’s chances to find success in a match.”