Blue Ponies set for another road trip

After finally competing in a home match last weekend, the Havre High volleyball team is right back on the road with a pair of matches this weekend. Tonight, the Blue Ponies will head on the road to face Browning before heading over to play Lewistown on Saturday. As they head on the road once again, HHS head coach Stephanie Huse wants to see her team continue to improve.

"The expectations that we've set for ourselves is really making sure that we're cleaning up some of our execution on both offense and defense," Huse said. "Defensively especially, we're just making sure that we're focusing on our responsibilities positionally and then offensively, becoming a little bit more of a more aggressive, smart attacking team."

The Ponies start the road trip with a match against Browning tonight. Last season, the Ponies defeated Browning in three sets. This will be the first time Huse and the Ponies have seen Browning in action this season, but she knows what to expect from the program.

"I expect there to be a lot of hustle and good defensive play by Browning," Huse said. "That will allow us to really work on our offensive piece as far as being more aggressive on our attack."

The Ponies will continue the road trip with a conference match against Lewistown on Saturday. The Ponies and Golden Eagles have already faced off this season at the tip-off tournament in Lockwood back in August. The Ponies won both sets against Lewistown by scores of 20-12.

Last season, the Ponies got the better of Lewistown in both matches. At home, Havre defeated Lewistown in three different sets. On the road, the Ponies defeated the Eagles in four sets to complete the season sweep. However, Huse expects the Eagles to be much better this fall.

"Lewistown has improved a great deal from last year. They have a lot of good athletes coming back into the season," Huse said. "They are pretty tenacious on defense. They put up a good block and they're a smart serving team so they're going to present challenges for us."

The Ponies have started the season 4-0, including a 3-0 mark in Northeast A competition. In their first three weekends of the season, the Ponies have played on the road. After starting the year with the tip-off tournament, the Ponies have gone 3-0 in their road matches to start the season. With their early-season experience on the road this fall, it should prove beneficial this weekend.

"We're beginning to understand the formula for what you need to bring on the road," Huse said. "Making sure that our communication is at a high level when we play, we're prepared for not having our home crowd and making sure we're creating our own energy when there's going to be a lot of opposing energy when we go into other gyms."

Many Ponies have had strong starts to the year. Avery Carlson has been key to the Ponies' success with 39 kills and eight service aces this year. With more playing time this year, Kyanna Jarvis has contributed with 36 kills and nine service aces. Other key contributors to the Ponies' success include Molly Huse with her 110 total assists and Lizzi Haney with her total of 60 digs this season.

The Ponies are off to a hot start this year with aspirations of a deep postseason later this run. But they have a long road to get there, so Huse just wants to see her players continue to focus on the task at hand.

"We're trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves. We're just trying to take each match as it comes to us," she said. "Each match, each set and just breaking it down into smaller pieces so we don't want to get too far ahead and just focus on what's in front of us."

The HHS volleyball team will play on the road against Browning tonight at 7:15 p.m. The Ponies will then head to Lewistown for a match on Saturday at 4 p.m.