The postseason arrives for the Blue Ponies

The Havre High volleyball team has had a stellar season this fall. The Blue Ponies made it look easy as they went undefeated during the regular season. Now they will look to build off that strong regular season as they begin the Eastern A Divisionals in Sidney this weekend. With the postseason finally here, the Ponies look forward to their most important matches of the season.

"Tournament time is very exciting," HHS head coach Stephanie Huse said. "Once it's here, it's serious and it's basically everybody's starting with a clean slate, and we're excited about it. It's good competition, it's good volleyball, and we enjoy playing good volleyball."

The Ponies enter the tournament undefeated with a 14-0 record and an 8-0 record in the Northeast A. Thanks to their strong finish, the Ponies earned the Northeast No. 1 seed in the divisional tournament.

Many Ponies have had strong seasons to lead them to success this fall. This past weekend, Avery Carlson continued her strong season with 25 kills and 33 digs across two matches. Kyanna Jarvis also played well with 19 kills and 18 digs over the weekend.

Yelena Miller has been strong in the middle while Molly Huse has continued to be a reliable setter for the Ponies. On defense, Lizzi Haney has been playing well with 36 digs across two matches this past weekend.

The Ponies played Lockwood this afternoon to start the tournament. Lockwood entered the tournament as the Southeast No. 4 seed and had to defeat Miles City in five sets Wednesday to advance in the tournament. The Ponies have already played Lockwood in a couple of tournaments this season. Across those tournaments, the Ponies won all three sets against Lockwood. However, coach Huse expects Lockwood to be tougher this time out.

"Lockwood is a young squad. They have a lot of enthusiasm and they work really hard," Huse said. "I see them coming in with a lot of energy and a lot of determination so they'll be a very good opponent for us to face."

If the Ponies win their match today, they will play the winner of the Hardin-Sidney match today at 3:30 p.m. Hardin is a tough team that earned the Southeast No. 2 seed in the tournament while Sidney earned the Northeast No. 3 seed. Recently, the Ponies defeated Hardin in four sets. Over the course of the season, the Ponies won in three sets in both matches against Sidney.

There will be many other matches through Thursday. This morning, Billings Central faced off with Glendive in a match. Billings Central is one of the top teams in the tournament as it earned the Southeast No. 1 seed in the tournament. The Rams and Ponies have only faced off in tournaments this year with the Rams winning a match in one tournament, 2-1, and then splitting another match.

Glendive enters the tournament as the Northeast No. 4 seed. The Ponies won both matches against Glendive this season, one in three sets and one in four sets. Glendive started the tournament Wednesday with a three-set win over Livingston, the tournament's Southeast No. 5 seed.

The winner of that match will face Lewistown or Laurel, who will play each other today at 1:30 p.m. Lewistown earned the Northeast No. 2 seed in the tournament while Laurel entered the tournament as the Southeast No. 3 seed. The Ponies played well against Lewistown this season as they won both matches, one in three sets and one in four sets. In their lone meeting this season, Havre defeated Laurel in four sets.

In the postseason, there will be no easy matches. But if there were any teams that could give the Ponies a run for their money this weekend, it would be Billings Central, Hardin and Lockwood.

"Those are the three that I think are on the radar and that will be good competition, but anybody during the tournament can upset anybody," Huse said. "We'll just take whoever's right in front of us at the time that we're facing them."

This will not be the first tournament the Ponies have played in this season. Back in August, the Ponies competed in the tipoff tournament in Lockwood. Last month, the Ponies played in the Blocktoberfest tournament in Butte. While the format of those tournaments were different, coach Huse believes they helped prepare the Ponies for some of the situations they will face this weekend.

"I think it prepared us for the competition and stress," she said. "(The tournament) is going to challenge us mentally and physically. It's going to be a good test for our girls and I just think that they're looking forward to it."

With an undefeated record, the Ponies have high expectations this weekend. While they have proven themselves to be a contender for the divisional title, Huse knows the Ponies will need to stay composed if they want to make a run.

"We just need to take it one step at a time, not get too far ahead of ourselves and make sure that we take care of what we are in control of," Huse said. "Making sure we're fundamentally sound, we're executing all the little things that we can control because we can't control what the other teams are doing. We can just control our response to it so that's going to be our focus."

The HHS volleyball team began the Eastern A Divisionals with a match against Lockwood today in Sidney.