Crested Butte volleyball suffers two-game slide

Look to rally at home this Saturday

After a strong performance on the road the previous weekend, the Titans returned home to a short week of practice before a home match against Del Norte Tigers and a road trip to league leader Sanford. The short week proved difficult as the mid-season injury train blew through the gym.
The night before the Thursday home match, senior Natalie Bowen and junior Sara Sherman were both injured going for a ball. The two injured starters thought they felt better than they actually did and started the match to try to help their team secure a victory. Instead, fear and trepidation seemed to rule the court as the remaining players were out of sync and tentative, almost afraid of causing further injuries. With hesitation as the primary rule on the court there were few highlights and the Titans dropped three quick sets 19-25, 15-25 and 17-25 to a scrappy Del Norte team.
Once again the Titans had no practices between injuries and matches as they hit the road on Friday.
The injuries would force two sophomores to step up and work through their nerves quickly. Sophomore Rosie Ewert stepped in as the defensive specialist and sophomore Monika Olesen would step in to prowl the net as the new middle blocker against the Sanford Indians.
The Titans gradually shook off their tentative play and adjusted to the new lineup and put together stretches where they worked together as a team. First to return to normal was the Titan serving, which before the Del Norte match had proven to be consistent through the season.
Olesen stepped up and served four big points in the first match to keep the Titans within reach. The Indians and Titans exchanged long rallies through the first set before losing 20-25. As happens in the sport of volleyball, switching sides of the court between each set can make it seem like a completely different team, a Jekyll and Hyde phenomena. That phenomena proved the case in the second set as the Titans failed to find any rhythm and lost quickly 11-25.
Then the other “good” team returned to play in the third set. Second server junior Cassidy Dodds found her mojo and rattled off five quick serve points to extend the Titan lead to 8-2. As the Titans gained confidence and started working as a team, the Indians demonstrated their calmness and steadiness as primary reasons they are leading the league this season. Despite a solid effort the Titans eventually lost the lead and dropped the final set 22-25. Senior co-captain Skylar Kraatz led the team with seven solo blocks and five kills on the day and senior co-captain Toni Brown added four kills and strong serve receive and defense against the Indians.
This weekend the Titans are working to improve their 6-6 record against two tough league opponents. The Titans travel to Center (2-6) on Friday to take on the Vikings. Center is never a team to be overlooked because the Vikings have battled all their opponents in every match.
On Saturday, the Titans will return home to host the LaVeta Redskins (4-4) on Saturday at noon in mighty Mt. Olympus. LaVeta should prove to be a tough match because they have a strong winning tradition, having captured fourth in the state in 2010.