The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Homecoming match this Friday at 5:45 p.m.
By Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Titans volleyball team won their second match in a row on Friday, September 12 and are looking to remain on the winning train when they host Ridgway for Homecoming on Friday, September 19 at 5:45 p.m. in mighty Mt. Olympus.
Both coaches and the captains readily admit that it wasn’t the smoothest win over the Creede Miners last Friday as they struggled their way through the first game to eke out a 27-25 win.
“They are a small team and what they are is scrappy and they brought it,” says coach Sheri Covey. “They’re not big and they’re not powerful but they don’t let the ball hit the ground.”
The Miners’ resilience and adjustments to their game plan then had the Titans on the back foot and Creede took the second game 25-19.
“They are a smart team, and they started to pick our defense apart,” says Covey.
But the Titans are equally nimble and when they took the floor for the third game, there was a noticeable shift in their plan. While passes were a bit off kilter which made for uneasy sets and unbalanced hits through the first two games, Crested Butte shifted onto the front foot to bring their offense to the forefront. The result was a 25-11 win in the third game and a 2-1 advantage.
“Sometimes it takes a while to figure out who you’re playing against and to then adjust,” says Covey. “Once we started to play offense, we started to beat them.”
“We finally worked together to get our offense going from scrappy defense,” adds junior captain Mia O’Neil.
While Creede refused to fold, Crested Butte’s offense continued to push the pace and the Titans sealed the match win thanks to a late game service run by Lilian Voegli, she racked up five aces on the day, as they took the fourth game 25-18. O’Neil led the team with 22 kills with Mylee and Lanaea Clifton providing the majority of assists. Serve receive and defense was led by O’Neil and Hailey Huresky.
“I think our team is learning how to work off nerves after the anticipation that away games bring during travel hours,” says O’Neil.
“They hung in there and won,” says Covey. “It was a challenging experience, and they stuck with it.”
The Titans now look forward to hosting the Ridgway Demons on Friday, September 19 as part of the Titans’ Homecoming weekend.
“Homecoming games are always the most adrenaline-packed, exciting games, so we are hyped,” says O’Neil.
Crested Butte then returns to the road on Saturday, September 20 to take on Monte Vista before they head into league play the following week.
“We’ve got a really complicated week after Homecoming weekend,” says Covey.
