Ponies silence the Wolves

The Havre High volleyball team wrapped up homecoming weekend with a three-game sweep over Cut Bank Saturday night in the HHS gymnasium. Yet, despite winning the match in straight sets, the victory was anything but easy for the Blue Ponies.

Two days after sweeping Class A rival Browning, Havre set out to do the same thing against Cut Bank, and even though it trailed by four or more points in all three sets, HHS blanked the Wolves by the scores of 25-20, 25-21 and 25-21.

"It was great to see us come back like that," HHS head coach Tamecia Jarvis said. "It was great to see the fight. But against better teams, we are not going to be able to do that. We can't let teams get ahead of us. We have to cut down on our mistakes but I was really proud of the way that we stuck with it."

In the opening set, the two teams battled back and forth with Cut Bank grabbing an early 8-5 lead before eventually building an 18-14 advantage. But a 6-0 run by the Ponies put them back in front and a kill from Jessa Chvilicek finalized the score at 25-20.

In the second set, Havre again spotted Cut Bank a lead and the Wolves found themselves up 18-12 before another 6-0 run by the Ponies tied it up. Chvilicek came up with a block to even the score at 18-18. The Wolves grabbed the lead back at 20-19, but the Ponies closed the set on a 6-1 run to go up 2-0 in the match with a 25-21 win.

Facing an 0-2 deficit, Cut Bank kept fighting and jumped out to another lead in the third. Following a 6-6 tie, Cut Bank ran off six of eight points to go up 12-8. The lead would get as large as 18-13 for the Wolves before the Ponies took over. Junior Sam Oliver was a key driving force in the comeback, scoring multiple points on quick kills, where she fakes a set and quickly hits the ball over the net. The technique led to multiple kills in the closing moments for Oliver, which sparked a 10-2 run to close the match, a run capped by another Chvilicek kill.

"Sam is a really great player," Jarvis said. "I don't give her enough credit or tell her enough how good she is doing. But she has been fantastic. She really does a lot for us."

Havre finished the match with 32 kills and eight of those were credited to Oliver, who also had 15 assists, nine digs and once ace. Cassidy Acor also had a productive night with six kills and a block. Chvilicek pitched in with five kills and 3.5 blocks, while Sydney Wilting added 11 digs and Kinsey Atkins led the Ponies with three aces.

"I was happy to see our two players (Kinsey Atkins and Quinn McDonald) step up from JV and play well," Jarvis said. "It was good to see them not being afraid of the ball. They played really well with us."

The win improved Havre's overall record to 6-5. The Ponies are still 1-1 in the Central A but face a critical match against Lewistown this Saturday at home. Prior to that, the Ponies will host Great Falls High on Thursday. Both matches are part of a five-match homestand for HHS.

Havre def. Cut Bank

25-20, 25-21, 25-21

Havre - Aces 5 (Kinsey Atkins 3, Peyton Brown 1, Sam Oliver 1); Kills 32 (Sam Oliver 8, Cassidy Acor 6, Jessa Chvilicek 5); Assists 26 (Sam Oliver 15, Peyton Brown 9, Katelyn Maloughney 2); Blocks 6 (Jessa Chvilicek 3.5, Sam Oliver 1.5, Cassidy Acor 1); Digs 44 (Sydney Wilting 11, Sam Oliver 9, Kinsey Atkins 6).