Ponies give GFH a tough match

For two games, the Havre High volleyball team was better than Great Falls High. Despite the fact that the Blue Ponies were huge underdogs, they were inspired on homecoming night and even though they came up short in the end, they proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they can compete against anyone.

Inside of a packed house at the HHS gymnasium Thursday night, the Ponies gave the Great Falls Bison all they could handle before ultimately falling short to their Class AA rival in four games, by the scores of 26-24, 18-25, 25-11 and 25-9.

“I thought in those first two games, we played the best that we have all season,” HHS head coach Melanie Skoyen said. “Then it seemed like we kind of took a step back and started making some mistakes again. But it was still good for us to get a game off of them.”

In the opening set of the nonconference match, HHS came out fired up and despite early attempts from Great Falls to take control, the pesky Ponies refused to give in. After falling behind 4-0 in the opening game, HHS got back within one at 7-6 following a kill by Naomi Terry.

Then, later in the set, the Bison built an 18-13 advantage before the Ponies stormed back and trimmed the lead to 18-17 after a Megan Erickson kill. The Bison would push the lead back to three at 23-20 but a net violation and two hitting errors let HHS back in it and suddenly the score was tied at 23-23.

Trailing 24-23 and facing game point, Reggie Bernard had a clutch kill that tied things up at 24-24, but in the end, Great Falls would not wilt and got an important kill from Libbey Fellows to retake the lead, then a hitting error by HHS gave the Bison the 26-24 win to go ahead 1-0.

In the second set of the match, the Ponies were determined to come out on top and took an early 4-3 after kills by Bernard and Carlene Rennick. Great Falls tied the score at 4-4 and then HHS went on an 8-0 run that included a kill by Wagner and an ace by Terry to put Havre ahead 12-4.

Yet, the Bison would bounce back and went on a run of their own, outscoring the Ponies 9-1 to tie the set up at 13-13. In response, HHS got another kill from Wagner, as well as a kill from Sami Huston and an ace from Madison Huebsch to go ahead 17-14.

Moments, later Jordyn Warren had a key ace to put the Ponies up 20-15. The two teams exchanged points until it was 23-18 in favor of Havre and that’s when kills by Terry and Wagner put the game away, giving HHS the 25-18 win and tying the match up at a game a piece.

However, with the match tied at one, Great Falls came out on fire in the third set and quickly built a 4-1 lead. Havre battled back and after a kill by Rennick the score was 7-6 in favor of Great Falls. But from that point on, the Bison left the Ponies in the dust.

Thanks in large part to a number of kills by Fellows as well as multiple aces by Brook Ortiz, the Bison went on a 12-1 run to build a 19-7 lead on their way to a 25-11 win in the third game to take a 2-1 advantage.

After falling behind 2-1, the Ponies didn’t have anything left in the tank and the Bison would go on to win the final game by the score of 25-9, giving them the road win over Havre on homecoming night.

“We just need to find a way to get more consistency,” Skoyen said. “We will play really well at times. But, tonight was a lot like the first time we played (Great Falls), we started well and then really fell off. So, we need to work on being more consistent and cutting out some of the same mistakes that we keep making. But I did think we played really well for the first two games and that was a positive thing, we just need to improve on our consistency.”

Bernard led the way for the Ponies with 10 kills. Wagner also had a big night with 15 digs, 12 assists and eight kills. Terry contributed with six assists and a team-high five aces. Huston and Rennick added two blocks each, while Warren and Erickson each had nine digs.

The loss drops the Ponies overall record to 1-11 on the season. They will be attempt to rebound Saturday when they travel to Browning for a Central A conference matchup.

Great Falls def. Havre

26-24, 18-25, 25-11 and 25-9

Havre leaders – Kills 29 (Reggie Bernard 10, Dani Wagner 8); Assists 23 (Dani Wagner 12, Naomi Terry 6); Blocks 7 (Sami Huston 2, Carlene Rennick 2, Reggie Bernard 2); Digs 50 (Dani Wagner 15, Megan Erickson 9, Jordyn Warren 9).