Choteau takes down HHS spikers at home

The Havre High volleyball team was looking to exact some revenge on the Choteau Bulldogs for a defeat earlier in the season, but in the end, the Bulldogs proved once again that they are simply on a different level than the Blue Ponies.

In a dominating performance from start to finish, Choteau easily dispatched of the visiting Ponies Thursday night, defeating Havre by the scores of 25-8, 25-15 and 25-21 to earn the sweep on senior night.

The win was reminiscent of first meeting between the two teams, which took place at the HHS gymnasium Sept. 27. On that night, the Bulldogs also swept the Ponies, meaning in two matches against Choteau, Havre was not able to capture a single game.

“The scores don’t reflect how we played,” HHS head coach Melanie Skoyen said. “Even in the first two games, there was an improvement from the last time that we played Choteau.”

The match did not get off to a promising start for the Ponies as they were dominated in the first set and lost 25-8. The second set was more competitive but HHS still wound up losing by ten, 25-15, to quickly fall in a 2-0 hole.

Havre did find its stride in the third set of the match and actually had a chance to take a game off of the vaunted Bulldogs but fell short 25-21.

“In the third game, the girls really redeemed themselves,” Skoyen said. “We made some really great plays.”

Leading the way statistically for the Ponies was Dani Wagner, who notched 13 assists and eight digs in the loss. Reggie Bernard, Megan Erickson and Sami Huston each had four kills, while Madison Huebsch had 11 digs and Naomi Terry had six assists.

Other contributors for Havre included Jacey McDonlad, who registered four blocks and Carlene Rennick, who had 3.5 blocks.

With the loss, the Ponies are now just 3-12 on the season overall and 2-3 in the Central A conference. With the win, the Bulldogs kept their perfect season alive and are now 12-0.

Havre will be off for the rest of the weekend and will be back in action again a week from Saturday, when the Ponies will play host to Central A rivals Livingston and Belgrade inside the HHS gymnasium. The first match against Livingston will get underway at 12:30 p.m. Then, the Ponies will square off against Belgrade later in the day at 3:30 p.m.

Choteau def. Havre

25-8, 25-15, 25-21

Havre – Kills 15 (Reggie Bernard 4, Megan Erickson 4, Sami Huston 4); Assists 13 (Dani Wagner 8, Naomi Terry 5); Digs 43 (Madison Huebsch 11, Dani Wagner 8); Blocks 15 (Jacey McDonald 4, Carlene Rennick 3.5).