Pony spikers make awaited home debut

It’s been a long strange, trip for the Havre High volleyball team. Well, at least it’s been long, as the Blue Ponies have been on the road four straight weekends to start the season. But that all changes tonight, when HHS welcomes the Lewistown Golden Eagles into the Pony Corral.

The Ponies (3-2) are looking forward to taking on their arch rival Lewistown, a team that has dominated HHS in recent years. The Eagles, along with Belgrade, have owned the Central A, which is something Havre wants to change starting tonight at 7 inside the HHS gymnasium.

“I am really excited about playing at home and I know the girls are excited about being at home,” HHS head coach Tamecia Jarvis said. “It’s a conference game, so it’s important for us and would be big for us to get a winning record in conference. But, we have beaten Lewistown a couple of times in tournaments already and it’s tough to beat a team three times, so hopefully we play well.”

While the Ponies have played well this season and are much improved from a season ago when they won just four games, there are still things that Jarvis wants her team focusing on and one of those things is hitting the ball better.

“The girls are working really hard,” Jarvis said. “But, we still need to do a better job with our hitting. We still have too many errors. I want to see us running our sets and our offense and not just getting everything off of free balls.”

One thing that the Ponies have going for them heading into the Lewistown game is not only the confidence they have gotten by beating the Eagles twice, once in the Windy City Classic and once in the Electric City Classic, but also the depth that they have across the board.

Of course, things begin and end for Havre with Dani Wagner, an All-State performer that stars as an outside hitter as well as a setter at times. And while Wagner is the team leader in kills, Havre also has a number of other girls that have been productive.

One of them is Reggie Bernard, a senior hitter/blocker that earned Second Team All-Conference honors a season ago. She is among the team leaders in both blocks and kills and is a critical presence around the net for HHS.

Junior setter Naomi Terry has been another key contributor for the Ponies this season and is the team leader in assists. Senior Megan Erickson has also played well for Havre this season along with Paige Nelson, who led the team in kills against Laurel last weekend. Madison Huebsch, Samy Huston, Jacey McDonald and Ceyara Plante have also been contributing positively.

“It is very hard to beat a team over and over again,” Jarvis said. “But, we just have to stay focused and play our game and not get into playing their game. If we can do that, I think we will be OK. Our hitting is going to be important. We need to make sure we are mixing it up and trying to hit around the block, not just into the block.”

After Havre takes on Lewistown in their home-opener, the Ponies will get back on the road as they head to Choteau to take on the traditional Class B power that made a trip to the Class B state tournament a season ago.

While Jarvis and the Ponies want to win against the Bulldogs, they haven’t been able to prepare for them much, and the focus remains the same, beat Lewistown and compete.

“We haven’t had a chance to watch any tape of Choteau,” Jarvis said. “So we are going to go down there and compete hard and do the best that we can. We obviously want to win non-conference games, we want to win every match, but beating Lewistown is what we are focused on right now.”

Havre and Lewistown will go at it approximately 7 tonight and will take on Choteau on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Choteau.