Havre volleyball looks to stay undefeated against Miles City

Homecoming week will cap off Saturday afternoon with the Havre High volleyball team hosting Miles City at Havre High Gymnasium. Last season, the Cowgirls defeated the Blue Ponies in Havre, so HHS head coach Stephanie Huse looks forward to facing the Cowgirls once again

"We are definitely excited that they're coming to us and we're able to see them at home this year," Huse said. "It's homecoming week so there's been a lot of excitement and energy around this week and it's nice to have one match that we can focus on and just prepare for."

The Cowgirls and Ponies have faced off already this season. At the tip-off tournament in Lockwood back in August, the Ponies won both sets against Miles City by scores of 20-10 and 20-10. In September, Havre defeated Miles City in three sets on the road. Despite the Ponies' success against Miles City, Huse believes the Cowgirls' size can be a problem.

"They're big. They're tall girls. They have a good frontline block and they're aggressive servers," Huse said. "Those are the things we're kind of keying in on. Just being ready on our serve receive and then being able to adjust and basically be prepared for the block that they present."

With the Cowgirls in town, the Ponies will look to defend their undefeated start to the season. Through the first month of the season, the Ponies are 9-0 with a 6-0 mark in Northeast A competition.

Just this past weekend, the Ponies played well as they won three matches in just three days. In all three matches, the Ponies took care of business winning in three sets.

Many Ponies are coming off strong weekends and will look to carry that into this weekend's match. Last week, Avery Carlson played well on offense with 25 total kills. Yelena Miller also played well with 13 kills, nine blocks and seven service aces across three matches.

Molly Huse played well last weekend with 76 assists and eight service aces. Lizzi Haney also made an impact with 63 digs and six service aces. Kyanna Jarvis will look to contribute this Saturday as she is coming off a weekend where she recorded 12 kills, 49 digs and four service aces.

It has been almost a month since the last time the Ponies and Cowgirls have faced off. While that may not seem like a long span of time, Stephanie Huse believes the Ponies have improved significantly since their last match against the Cowgirls.

"I just think the girls are definitely more comfortable with their positional expectations on what they're responsible for when we're playing," Huse said. "We're a little bit better than we were, which is good and I just think our rhythm has improved significantly."

With it being homecoming week for the Ponies, there is a lot of excitement going around. Even though emotions are sure to be high, Huse believes her players are more than capable of handling it to play a strong match this weekend.

"Our philosophy has always been to just take it one step at a time and not get too far ahead," Huse said. "Just being present in those moments and not letting all the other distractions get in the way of what we're trying to do day to day."

The HHS volleyball team will get its homecoming match started against Miles City this Saturday at 4 p.m. at Havre High Gymnasium.