Titan volleyball opens season with three match wins

“We just see a toughness coming out of them”

[  by Than Acuff  ]

And just like that, it’s on. After two weeks of preseason workouts, the Crested Butte Titans volleyball team opened the season with four home matches on Saturday, August 23 and finished the day racking up three wins.

They started things off with the Creede Miners. Nerves were the biggest part of the opening home match as the Titans struggled to build any sizeable advantage, but they got the job done winning in two games 25-23, 26-24.

“It was a good way to start the season for us,” says coach Sheri Covey.

Not long after the Titans returned to the court to face the Cotopaxi Pirates. While Covey admits they’ve had trouble with Cotopaxi in the past, the Titans continued to build momentum beating the Pirates in two games 25-12, 25-18.

Then, they got their biggest test of the day both physically and psychologically as they faced the Caprock Academy Eagles complete with their robust coach. The Titans last beat the Eagles in 2022 and since then have not been able to take them down. Crested Butte opened the back-and-forth battle to edge out a 25-23 win in the first game but then lost the equally close second game 25-23 forcing the match to be decided in a third and final tiebreaker game to 15 points. The Eagles stepped on the pedal a bit more and took down the Titans 15-9 for the match win.

“They fought really hard against Caprock,’ says Covey. “We just fell apart a little in that last game but that’s okay, they learned a lot.”

Crested Butte closed out the day against the Norwood Mavericks. Both teams showed signs of fatigue in the match and while Crested Butte couldn’t get their big hitters going, they did jump out to an 8-4 lead in the first game. Norwood refused to fold though and stayed in touch with the Titans eventually tying the game 15-15. Crested Butte then outscored Norwood 10-1 down the stretch with a couple of aces from Mylee Clifton and kills from Hailey Huresky and Maryn Pritchett to help pace the Titans to the 25-16 win.

Norwood ramped up their effort in the second game taking an 8-5 lead and then holding their slim advantage throughout to win the second game 25-21.

“They don’t have a big offense, but they always have really tenacious defense and can take games from you with their defense,” says Covey.

That sent the match into a third tiebreaker game and after the two teams traded points for a 6-6 score, an ace from Mia O’Neil and a quick decision tap by Pritchett help the Titans build a slim advantage that they would build upon to finish the third game 15-10 and win the match.

“They got smarter as the match went on and started hitting the ball smarter,” says Covey. 

The Titans finished the day winning three of four matches as O’Neil led the team in kills on the day, Clifton racked up the most assists and Huresky proved tough at the net leading the team in blocks.

 “All day we had exceptional play from Hailey Huresky, Mia is always great and has such a high volleyball IQ and Haley Roberts is just a rock, so team-oriented,” says Covey. “I was really proud of the whole team. We just see a toughness coming out of them.”

The Titans have four more home matches on Saturday, August 30 starting at 8 a.m. and continuing on through the afternoon.