News you can use
News you can use
Havre High sophomore Dani Wagner, right, goes up for a block during the annual Blue/White scrimmage last month at the Havre High gymnasium. The Blue Ponies travel to Livingston this weekend for conference matches against Belgrade and Livingston, as well as the annual Windy City Classic Saturday.
After opening the season with just one match against the Browning Indians, the Havre High volleyball program sprints into week two of the season.
Starting the season with a 1-0 overall, and conference record, the Central A Blue Ponies have a shot to add two more conference wins, as well as have a strong showing at the annual Windy City Classic.
Friday, the Ponies will play in Livingston. The Ponies will face conference rivals in the Livingston Rangers and Belgrade Panthers, presenting the Ponies with two very tough matches. But the Ponies will remain on the road Saturday as well, facing a very tough field in Livingston at the Windy City Classic. The Ponies will face Townsend, Bridger, Manhattan, Belgrade, and Livingston. Depending on how well the Ponies do Saturday, they could find themselves playing several more matches deep into the bracket play.
First things first, though, the Ponies are excited to face the Rangers and Panthers in conference play, hopefully starting the season 3-0.
“If we play like we did against Browning we will be OK,” Havre High head coach Melanie Skoyen said. “We definitely have to make more serves and start off stronger, but if we do that we will be competitive. We can’t start slow, and wait for game two to get going, especially when we play good teams like Belgrade and Livingston.”
The Panthers may be down, but they are not out. Belgrade lost a lot of their varsity players from last season, but bring in a good group of junior varsity players that had a very successful JV season a year ago. And the Panthers are coming off of a weekend where they were swept, but showed a lot of promise against Class AA Billings Skyview.
Billings Skyview won by scores of 26-24, 25-16 and 25-12. But the Panthers do have three returning players, and seniors Madison Page and Taylor Woolman should give the Ponies a lot to handle with their hitting abilities.
“We will be their second conference game,” Skoyen said. “They play Browning before us, but I expect them to come out excited and strong. They are going to be fired up, and maybe even looking past us because they beat us three times last year. But our girls have some revenge out for them, so I expect us to play well.”
Livingston also has a solid program this season. The Rangers bring back a lot of their varsity starters from a year ago, but did lose some size in the middle. Even with that sizable hole, the Ponies know the Rangers always seem to find girls to step up.
“They are always tall and they always seem to attack and have good hitters,” Skoyen noted.
The Ponies know what they have to do to be successful all weekend long, and that doesn’t include straying away from what they have worked on already this season. The serve-receive was a bright spot last weekend, but serving on the other hand, coach Skoyen said they have to execute that much better this time around.
“What you want to do to any good offensive team is to serve them tough,” Skoyen said. “And make sure our hitters are hitting into the deep corners. And we have to just throw them off of their game by making the digs and making good passes, anything to keep them out of their comfort zone.”
The game plan will be the same for Saturday as well, playing in five more tough matches. Townsend, Bridger and Manahttan will give the Ponies a chance to work on some new things being non conference, but it will also be nice to see Belgrade and Livingston again so soon. The five matches won’t count toward the Ponies’ record, but if the Ponies make it deep into the tournament, they could also wind up facing Lewistown, another top conference rival.
“I think we will work on a little bit of everything,” Skoyen said. “It is a good day for us to work on things, and what we need is repetition. We have a young setter still, and though we have returners, a lot of them didn’t play much at the varsity level. This is just a good day for us to get a lot of touches and just figure out some different rotations and lineups.”
Friday the Ponies will play in Livingston, facing the Rangers and Panthers in conference play. Saturday the Ponies will remain in Livingston at the Windy City Classic.
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