Havre volleyball ready for back to back this weekend

The Havre High volleyball team returns home to Havre High Gymnasium this weekend to host a pair of matches against Browning and Sidney. After playing Browning Friday night, the Blue Ponies will face Sidney Saturday for their senior night. With this being their last matches at home for the season, HHS head coach Stephanie Huse is excited for this weekend.

"It's our senior weekend so there's a lot of excitement and energy around the fact that it'll be our last time playing at home this season," Huse said. "Both teams that are coming in we've faced so we know what they're bringing and we're just excited to tackle both matches."

Before the match against Sidney on Saturday, the Ponies will honor their four seniors. For their contributions and time in the program, Molly Huse, Avery Carlson, Yelena Miller and Lizzi Haney will be honored. With this being one of her first classes, Stephanie Huse believes these players have earned the recognition they will get this weekend.

"This class is a pretty special class of girls," Huse said. "They're positive leaders, they're highly competitive and they also know how to enjoy themselves while they play together so it's a special group and it's rare that you find such a combination of girls that impact your program at such a high level for a long time."

The Ponies already played both these teams last month on the road. Late last month in Browning, the Ponies defeated Browning in three sets (25-11, 25-15, 25-14). Kyanna Jarvis led the Ponies with seven kills in that match while Carlson had a good performance with five kills and three service aces. While the Ponies got the better of Browning earlier this fall, Huse expects Browning to be a better team this weekend.

"They showed us the improvements that they've made in their program and they're a pretty competitive team," Huse said. "They've got some girls that are really good and aggressive attackers so I look to that match to be competitive and good for our girls to face."

The Ponies faced Sidney on the road at the beginning of September. In that match, the Ponies won in three sets by scores of 25-8, 25-9 and 25-7. Jarvis played well with 12 kills and Carlson recorded 11 kills and five service aces. Just like Browning, Huse expects Sidney to be better than it was a month ago.

"I'm anticipating that they have improved since we saw them last," Huse said. "They're always a very tall and long team so they're going to present some challenges on the net."

The Ponies are having a strong season as they are 10-0 with a 7-0 record in Northeast A competition. This past weekend, the Ponies competed in the Blocktoberfest tournament in Butte where they finished third. After a long weekend in Butte, the Ponies are focused on resting and learning from that experience before hosting Browning and Sidney this weekend.

"We're just trying to recharge our batteries and then taking all the information that we gathered from that weekend and the things that were working well for us," Huse said. "(We're focusing on) the things that we weren't doing so well and really focusing on those areas and making sure that those areas are something that we improve on."

Not only will the Ponies have to physically recover from last weekend's tournament, but they also have to deal with the emotions of senior night. This will be the last time Molly Huse, Miller, Haney and Carlson will play volleyball in HHS Gymnasium, so emotions could get away from them.

"I think you just have to channel it in the right direction. You can't let it dictate the emotion of the match. You have to take it in the recognition and then you got to let it go and move on to what's in front of us," Stephanie Huse said about the emotions. "That's been the theme all year. Just getting through certain moments and taking it for what it is and then making sure you're staying in the current moment and working through those steps."

After this weekend, the Ponies will only have two more road matches before beginning divisionals in Sidney early next month. With little time remaining before the postseason, Huse just wants to see her players enjoy their last two home matches of the season.

"I just want them to try to enjoy it, be in the moment, appreciate it and just work really hard together," Huse said. "That's all I want out of them because I feel like everything else comes pretty naturally to them. The discipline and the intelligence behind their games comes pretty naturally to them and I just want them to try to enjoy themselves."

The HHS volleyball team will begin the weekend Friday at 4 p.m. with a match against Browning at HHS Gymnasium. The Ponies will then host Sidney for their senior night Saturday at 4 p.m. at HHS Gymnasium.