Blue Pony volleyball ready for senior night

The Havre High volleyball team has been on a tear this season. The Blue Ponies are first in the Northeast A and have an 8-1 record. They have also won five matches in a row. Havre will try to keep that streak alive when they host Glendive and Sidney this weekend at Blue Pony Gymnasium in some of their last few home matches of the season.

"It's a big weekend for us being our last double-header at home," HHS head coach Stepahnie Huse said. "I just look for a lot of energy and excitement from the girls this weekend."

Havre will begin the weekend with a match against Glendive tonight. The match will be the second meeting of the season between these two teams after they previously played on Sept. 18. The Ponies won that match in five sets by winning their sets by scores of 25-20, 23-25, 22-25, 25-17 and 15-9.

The Devils have many strong players who could give Havre some trouble. Senior Brittney Kaufman leads Glendive after being named all-state last season. Glendive also has junior Saddie Egan who was second-team all-conference last fall. Mallory Robinson will also look to make an impact for the Devils after being named honorable mention all-conference the previous year.

"Glendive brings a lot of strong athletic girls. They have some really good outside hitters who are pretty aggressive in their attack," Huse said. "They're pretty competitive and they put up a good fight."

Even though it will not be their final match of the year, Havre's match against Sidney Saturday night will be their senior night. The Ponies will honor Maddie Columbus, Alyssa Oliver and Jade Wendland for their time in the program. With emotions running high, Huse hopes her team can use it to their benefit.

"As wonderful a night as it is, it's very emotional," Huse said. "I think we just try to channel that emotion to work in our favor, to focus that energy and that emotion in a positive direction and just really focus on enjoying ourselves."

The Ponies previously played Sidney Sept. 17. Havre swept the Eagles by winning its sets by scores of 25-16, 25-18 and 25-15. But Huse believes the Eagles have improved since then and will be a tougher outing this weekend.

"Every time they touch the floor, they get better and better," Huse said. "They have a lot of younger girls that I'm sure are getting more consistent and strong, and I think they'll probably show that on Saturday night."

With a five-match winning streak and a hold on first place in the Northeast A, it would be easy for the Ponies to get complacent. But Huse believes that her team is able to focus on the task at hand instead of relishing in their past success or looking ahead.

"For us right now, it's one match at a time and then when we're in the match, we're taking it set by set," Huse said. "We just try to stay in the present moment and really stay focused on what our plan is each match."

For when the Ponies get on the court, Huse believes all they have to do to win this weekend is to play just like they have been playing all season long.

"We just need to stay consistent with all the things that we focus on which is our ball control, our aggressive attack, our aggressive serving and then just staying together as a team," Huse said. "The chemistry has been very positive and they feed off of each other because they all really enjoy playing together. So if we can keep all of those pieces with what we do, I think we'll be alright night in and night out."

HHS volleyball will play Glendive tonight at 7 p.m. at Blue Pony Gymnasium. The Ponies will then host Sidney at home Saturday at 4 p.m.