The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I still have high hopes for the end of the season that we can be a spoiler for a few teams”
By Than Acuff
It’s been a tough run for the Crested Butte Titans volleyball team recently as they’re in the midst of the toughest part of their schedule facing the top teams in their league as well as stout non-league opponents.
The latter was the case on Wednesday, October 2 when they hit the road to take on the Custer County Bobcats. The Bobcats are a solid 1A program that sits at the top of their league standings and battled against some of the top 2A teams in the state.
The Titans dropped the first set of the match 25-17 and then regressed to lose 25-14 in the second set.
“We had a rough start to the Custer County game,” says coach Sheri Covey. “We had three tough matches in one week that really knocked a lot out of us.”
Crested Butte recovered in the third set as they fought their way to a 25-18 win but fell in the fourth set 25-17 to lose the match. Hailey Huresky led the offense with eight kills, Emery Spencer racked up nine blocks and Mandala Covey Bleiberg tallied 11 assists in the match.
“We took a set, but we were sluggish,” says Covey. “Volleyball is a quick game and when you play slow, it’s hard to win.”
It was the fourth loss in a row for the Titans and there are plenty of challenges ahead as they face one of the top 2A teams and league leaders Del Norte this week. They hope to find their winning ways on Friday, October 11 when they host Antonito at 5:15 p.m.
“We’ve had a tough ride lately,” says Covey. “We had three tough matches in one week that really knocked a lot out of us, but on the other hand, gave us lots of opportunities to improve.”
The Titans hope to seize on that experience gained as they get through this week and then have three more matches following the school’s October Break.
“I still have high hopes for the end of the season that we can be a spoiler for a few teams,” says Covey. “The most important thing is the girls are getting tons of experience and learning what it means to be a great tough opponent. Volleyball in its nature is a high-speed game that you cannot play without lots of experience. The ball never comes at you twice the same way so what Heidi O’Neil and I are hoping as this team gets more experience and higher skills, we’ll come charging back and be in the running more often in matches.”
