Tough matches await Ponies

If there is one team more than any other that the Havre High volleyball team loves to beat, it's the Lewistown Eagles. And for the first time this season, the Ponies will get a chance to take the court against their arch rivals.

The road has been difficult for the Ponies so far as they have faced some difficult competition and are just 1-8 overall and 1-2 in the Central A. Yet, HHS can make up for those losses with a win tonight over Lewistown when they host the Eagles at the HHS gymnasium at 7.

"One thing that we have struggled with in the past is getting pumped up too much when we play Lewistown and then start messing up on fundamentals and things like that," HHS head coach Melanie Skoyen said. "So I want to face them like we do any other team. We know that to beat a team like Lewistown we have to limit our errors to almost none. Lewistown is a very smart team, and they don't have a lot of hitting errors. They don't make a lot of mistakes. That is why they are a very good team, they are disciplined and do what is expected of them."

The Eagles come into the match with a 3-1 overall record and a 2-0 record in Central A conference play. Last week, Lewistown was 3-0, defeating Belgrade, Laurel and Hardin.

The Eagles are led by a slew of talented players including Michelle Monger, who is leading the Central A in overall kills with 123. She is also second in the conference in total blocks with 24. Sydney Wier is also among the leaders in the Central A is both assists and aces. Other key contributors for the Eagles include Nicole Karhi, Nora Weichel and Jaree Mane,

Leading the way for the Ponies against the Eagles will be junior Dani Wagner. Wagner is currently leading the Central A in total aces with 35 and fourth in total kills with 96. Wagner, who sets for the Ponies, is also fourth in the conference with 138 assists.

Reggie Bernard is another key contributor for the Ponies, who will continue to play on the right side. She currently has 76 kills on the season, which is tied for fifth in the league. She also leads the Central A in blocks with 25.

The Ponies will also count on contributions from Sami Huston, Jordyn Warren, Carlene Rennick, Megan Erickson and Madison Huebsch.

"The biggest thing for us is to avoid the hitting errors," Skoyen said. "It's frustrating when you are losing games by two or three points and you have a bunch of hitting errors. We need to cut our hitting errors in half and if we can do that, we will start to win a lot more games."

After the Ponies square off against the Eagles Friday, they will host Choteau out of District 1B Saturday in a nonconference affair.

Despite being a Class B school, the Bulldogs have a very good volleyball program and have not lost to the Ponies in five years.

"Choteau is always a really good team," Skoyen said. "They are a smaller school, but they are good in volleyball and their coaches have been there for around 20 years. Since Choteau has been on our schedule, we have yet to beat them but, hopefully, this is the year."

As the Ponies look ahead to their ultimate goal of placing high at the Central A tournament and making it to state, they know that they will have to beat good teams like Lewistown to get there. A win against either Lewistown or Choteau would also instill some much-needed confidence for a team with just one win in nine games into the season.

"It would be great for our confidence to beat either of these teams this weekend," Skoyen said. "I think that the potential is there. We have improved a lot on defense, we just need to trust in each other and keep with what is working. But we will see what happens when we hit the floor."

The Ponies play the first of back-to-back home games tonight against Lewistown at 7. Then Saturday, the Ponies will host Choteau at 12 p.m. at the HHS gymnasium.