Titans volleyball looks to peak for the final stretch

“Dolores is the toughest team we will face all year”

by Than Acuff 

It was a tough way to go into the October Break for the Crested Butte Titans volleyball team but as they have all season long, they come out of it that much stronger.

After the Titans rolled to a straight set win over Trinidad, their final match before the break was against Dolores on Thursday, October 9. The Dolores Bears came into the match with a record of 12-2 and ranked top 10 in the state in 2A losing just seven sets total through 14 matches and their initial energy and level took control of the first set to win 25-15.

“Our goal was to play our game and stick to what works for us,” says assistant coach Heidi O’Neil. “The match started rough as Dolores honed in on our strongest offensive players and our defense struggled to shut them down. Their offense was faster than we typically see, and our blockers struggled to get out to contest their outside hitters.”

The Titans started to find their footing as the second set continued and nipped the Bears for a couple of more points before falling 25-17. By the third set, Crested Butte started making some waves as they found their game to push the Bears.

“Dolores went after Mia and tried to force us to go out of our system,” says O’Neil. “Once she settled in, she was the scoring threat that we needed her to be, and Haley Erickson played a phenomenal game working hard to get the ball out to our outside hitters.” 

As the third set wore on, it was apparent the Titans continued to gain confidence with a lot of their success coming on the defensive side of the ball.

“Barbara Siqueira, Jamie Moran, Haley Roberts and Mira Fischer worked hard in the back row on defense to defend Delores’ hitters,” says O’Neil.

But as the third set continued, the Bears locked back in and closed out the match winning the third set 25-19. Mia O’Neil led the team with 17 kills and Grace Williams had 6. Siqueira had 12 digs while Mira, Fischer, Erickson and Roberts each had eight and Moran had 10 digs.

“Dolores is the toughest team we will face all year,” says Heidi. “The takeaway is that we can compete against a team of that caliber, but we cannot wait until the third set to play our game.”

Following the October Break the Titans return to a frantic close to the regular season with five matches in 11 days starting with home matches against Salida on Tuesday, October 20 at 6 p.m. and a second one on Friday, October 23 against Sanford at 5:30 p.m.

“Our goal is to win,” says Heidi of the final stretch. “We are still focused on a chance to play in regionals.”