HHS spikers look for a fresh start

The 2016 season has been a challenging one for the Havre High volleyball team, but it's also one that is far from over. And this weekend, the Blue Ponies will have a chance at redemption as they get set for the Eastern A Divisional.

The great thing about high school sports, especially ones like volleyball that use postseason tournaments to determine divisional and state champions, is that even though a team like HHS (7-12, 3-5) hasn't had a great season, it still has a chance to turn things around. However, in order to do that, Havre will have to survive tonight's play-in match against Laurel, which will get underway at 6 p.m.

Laurel is not only hosting the first-round match, it's hosting the entire Eastern A Divisional, which runs through Saturday. The top four teams will advance to the Class A state tournament next week in Bozeman.

If the Ponies win the match, they are officially into the Eastern A Super Divisional and from that point, will be part of the double-elimination tournament. Yet, if they lose to the Locomotives, the 2016 season will be over.

"I still think the biggest thing for us is finding some consistency," HHS head coach Tamecia Jarvis said. "We have talent. At times, we have shown that we can play really well, we just haven't been able to find that consistency that we are going to need to beat good teams."

Case in point was the Ponies' match last Friday against Lewistown, which finished the Central A tied for first place. Havre lost to the Eagles in four sets, but if a few points here and there had gone another way, the Ponies could have easily been the victor. It's those little things that Jarvis said will need to change for Havre to get hot and make a run this week.

"Lewistown is a good team," Jarvis said. "And we stuck right with them. So it shows what we are capable of. We just have to get everyone working as a team and playing well together."

Of course, that's always easier said than done. Yet sometimes, playing with your back to the wall is what brings out the best in teams and that's certainly what the Ponies will be hoping for against Laurel.

Havre, which has four seniors in Naomi Terry, Jacey McDonald, Claire Worm and Ceyara Plante, will be looking for those players to lead the way. McDonald and Plante are both among the Central A conference leaders in blocks, while Terry and Worm are both solid all-around players who contribute consistently in multiple areas of the game.

Outside of those players, the Ponies will also be looking for contributions from Logan Huebsch, who is among the Central A leaders in aces, Camryn Huston, Sam Oliver, Alex Donaldson and Alex Barkus. Paige Nelson has also played better and better the past few weeks and will also play an important role around the net for HHS.

While the Ponies had a difficult regular season, it was nothing compared to what Laurel experienced. The Locomotives went 0-10 in Eastern A regular season play and finished the season 0-13. They will need their first win of the year if they are going to eliminate Havre. If the Ponies do beat Laurel, they would then turn around and play the winner of Browning (1-16, 0-8) and Glendive (4-9, 2-8), Thursday at 11 a.m.

From there, the winner would take on Billings Central (13-3, 10-0) Thursday at 7 p.m. The other first-round matchups feature Sidney (9-3, 7-3) battling Lewistown (12-9, 7-1), Hardin (10-5, 7-3) going head-to-head with Livingston (5-14, 3-5) and Miles City (7-8, 4-6) taking on Belgrade (20-4, 7-1). Those matches will all take place Thursday in Laurel.

The semifinal on the winner's side of the bracket will be held Saturday at 1 p.m., with the championship match following later that same day at 5 p.m. All matches will be held at Laurel High School.