Blue Pony spikers learn at Eastern A Tipoff tourney

Heading into the weekend’s Eastern A Tip-Off tournament in Glendive, the Havre High volleyball team was looking to learn some things about itself and what it found out, is that the Eastern A is as tough as ever.

When it was all said and done, the Blue Ponies would play a total of six matches in Glendive, four on Friday during pool play, followed by two more Saturday.

Friday, Havre posted a record of 1-1-2, as the Ponies lost two sets to Hardin 25-9 and 25-12, before winning two against Sidney 26-24 and 25-18. HHS then followed that up by splitting with Lewistown (23-25, 25-19) and Laurel (26-28, 25-23).

After posting a 1-1-2 record in group play Friday, the Ponies played two matches Saturday, with the first coming against Central A foe Livingston. The Rangers and Ponies were playing a crossover match in pool play and it was Livingston that came out on top 27-25 and 25-12.

Then in the tournament, the Ponies were matched up against Billings Central, the Class A state runner-up from a season ago. Despite their best efforts, the Ponies fell 25-15 and 25-12, giving Havre a 1-3-2 record for the weekend.

“I thought that we did some good things,” HHS head coach Tamecia Jarvis said. “Our block was really good. I thought we had one of the better blocks of all the teams that were there, so it was good to see that. I think the biggest thing for us is that we need to find a way to kill the ball better. We are running more things through the middle, which we didn’t do last year, but we just need to find a way better way for our setter and our hitters to connect.”

The first day of the tournament didn’t start great for Havre, as the Ponies were beaten easily by Hardin. But HHS bounced back and earned a sweep over Sidney, as well as splits with Lewistown and Laurel. Then, Havre closed out the weekend with back-to-back losses to Livingston and Billings Central.

“We didn’t play quite as good Saturday as we did Friday,” Jarvis said. “We just seemed to be a little more nervous and we were making some mistakes and had a lot of hitting errors. The worst part was that we got beat out so early Saturday, so we didn’t get to play more and get those extra matches that the other teams got, but we just have to get back to the drawing board and get back to work this week.”

Over the two-day tournament, Jarvis said a number of players stood out, including Camryn Huston, who notched a team-high 7.5 blocks. Logan Huebsch and Sam Oliver both added 30 digs apiece defensively over the two days. Both players also contributed with a team-high eight aces. Oliver also led the team with 52 assists.

“We ended up using all 12 players that we took and they did a good job,” Jarvis said. “Some of them made young mistakes, but we just have to realize they are young and are going to do that. But I thought our serving was really good and our serve-receive was awesome. Our block was good defensively, we just need to do a better job of killing the ball and trying to be a little smarter about it.”

Havre will travel to Belgrade Friday to take on Livingston and Belgrade in back-to-back Central A conference matches, before taking part in the Panther Classic Saturday.