Blue Ponies face Glendive in home opener

The Havre High volleyball is finally back on the Hi-Line with a match at Havre High Gymnasium this Saturday afternoon. After three weekends on the road, the Blue Ponies will play Glendive in their home opener. While the Ponies are excited to be at home, HHS head coach Stephanie Huse expects Glendive to play well.

"They have some good athletes that play for them and they're well coached," Huse said. "They're aggressive and they serve well so they're going to present a good challenge for us so we're looking forward to that."

The Ponies enter the match with a 3-0 record and a 2-0 mark in the Northeast A. Just this past weekend, the Ponies handled business on the road with wins against Laurel and Miles City. Even though her team did not mind the long road trips, Huse believes her team will be happy to finally play at home this weekend.

"The girls are excited to finally be at home and be able to play in front of their fans, their family and their community," Huse said. "We have to be aware that sometimes when you're really excited and the adrenaline's high, we've got to really make sure that we're using it to our advantage and not letting it take over what we're doing."

The Ponies have already competed against Glendive this season with the squads facing off at the tipoff tournament in Lockwood last month. In the two sets they played, Havre won both by scores of 20-14 and 20-17. Last season, the Ponies won both matches against Glendive, including a five-set match early in the season.

If the Ponies want to carry on their recent success against Glendive, their best players will need to have another strong outing this Saturday. Avery Carlson should be a playmaker as she leads the team with 29 total kills so far this season. Kyanna Jarvis is also off to a hot start with 28 kills and nine service aces already this fall.

The Ponies began the season with the tipoff tournament late last month. While the Ponies played well in that tournament, Huse believes they have improved since then and are ready to show that off to fans this weekend.

"I've just seen steady progression. I think that every time that we've stepped on the floor, we've improved, we've gotten better; we've seen things get cleaner, get crisper and make more sense," Huse said.

With this being their first home game, emotions might be high for the Ponies. So when they are on the court, Huse just wants to see her team relax and play this match as if it were any other.

"I just want to see them compete hard and then just enjoy themselves," Huse said. "This group of girls really has some nice chemistry going on and when you enjoy playing together like these girls do, just being able to put that into competition mode is exciting. So we look forward to putting that on display in our hometown."

The HHS volleyball team will tip off against Glendive at HHS Gymnasium this Saturday at 4 p.m.