The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Play at home Thursday, September 12 at 5:30 p.m.
By Than Acuff
With three starters missing in action, the Crested Butte Titans volleyball team headed into the San Juan mountains to face the Ouray Trojans on Saturday, September 7 and won three of four games to win the match.
Crested Butte showed no signs of road weariness in the opening set rolling to a 25-13 win, but the tides turned in the second set as the Trojans tied up the match with a 25-18 win.
“We just couldn’t put 1-2-3 together,” says coach Sheri Covey. “Each rally had a mistake in it.”
With players missing, Covey continued to look to everyone to step onto the floor throughout the match and the Titans pulled it back together to win the third set 25-17.
“We had a young team out there and they hung in there,” says Covey.
One change in the culture on the team Covey has touted since day one is resiliency and while Ouray was not the toughest opponent, the Titans’ resiliency came into play. Add in the fact that injuries at the start of the season have coaches Covey and Hillary O’Neil calling on players to step up which brings up the overall experience of the squad.
“They refocused, came back and won the third and fourth,” says Covey. “I played everyone on the bench and I like that and they did great. They’ve started to dig in when they’re down and not just give it to anybody.”
Mia O’Neil and Mandala Covey-Bleiberg led the team with 13 kills each while Mattie Halverson and Lilian Voegeli tallied three kills each. Covey-Bleiberg and O’Neil also combined for 25 digs with Halverson coming up with six of her own and Tessa Wirsing tallied seven assists on the night.
The Titans are now 5-4 and open league play on Thursday, September 12 when they host Trinidad in mighty Mt. Olympus at 5:30 p.m. They remain at home to host South Park the next day at 5:30 p.m. and then head to Ridgway on Saturday, September 14.
