HHS spikers fall short in Central A matches

Chris Peterson

Havre Daily News

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The Havre High volleyball team faced a pair of early-conference tests this past weekend and unfortunately, the results were not what the Blue Ponies hoped for or expected.

On Friday, the Ponies took on Belgrade and Livingston in back-to-back Central A conference matches in Belgrade. In the first contest, Havre took on Belgrade and lost in straight sets by the scores of 25-15, 25-11 and 25-10.

After losing to Belgrade, the Ponies took on Livingston, a team Havre beat the week before at the Eastern A Tip-Off tournament, and lost the Rangers. Livingston won the first two games 25-20 and then closed out HHS in straight sets, putting Havre at 0-2 to start Central A conference play.

"I am not sure what happened but we just were not ready to play," HHS head coach Tamecia Jarvis said. "We ended up having a lot of errors. We had also 29 service errors and 27 hitting errors, so that's a lot of points that you are giving up right there. So we just need to forget about it and go back to work. I take the blame for the team not being ready to play, but we are going to re-examine and change some things in practice to make sure that we are prepared."

After a disappointing Friday, the Ponies were in Livingston on Saturday for the Windy City Classic. But, in the tournament, which featured a number of different schools from different classifications, Havre didn't fare any better posting an 0-5 record after losing to Bridger, Jefferson, Gardiner and Townsend in pool play, followed by a loss to Browning in tournament play, even though the match was just one set.

"We just did not have a good weekend," Jarvis said. "But we are going to make sure we correct the things that we need to, and we are going to work on those things in practice. But the one thing is that we should always be giving 110 percent, and I think that was something that the girls struggled with this weekend. I think part of it, too, is that they are still trying to find their place and find where they fit in, so that will come. It's just going to take some time, but all we can do is continue to work in practice and try to fix the mistakes that we are making."

Things won't get any easier for the Ponies (0-2) as they travel to Great Falls for the Electric City Classic, where Havre will compete against a host of Class AA teams.