By Tiffany L. Rehbein
Tiffany Shrauger, Erin Patera, and Amy Ranes notched three aces apiece en route to the Havre Blue Ponies' 15-9, 15-4, 17-15 win over the District 2B Chinook Sugarbeeters in non-conference action Saturday at Havre.
"I think we started the match pretty well," Havre head coach Bill Huebsch said. "The second game was the best game. All the way around we played a lot better."
The Ponies (5-2, 13-4) served up 15 aces in the match. Chinook's Amanda Schoen tallied all three Sugarbeeter aces in the match.
Patera had nine kills to lead Havre, who had 27 in the match. Sophomore Jayla McPherson added six on the night.
Sophomore Amy Ranes had two of Havre's five blocks, while senior Teri Sherrill led the Ponies with eight digs. Havre tallied 38 in the match.
Seniors Lisa Wagner and Kirsten Kuka notched 10 and eight assists.
In the third game, the Ponies opened the game with a 6-0 lead. After Wagner served two aces and Jayla McPherson notched a kill, Havre held a 10-3 lead.
But Chinook slowly whittled away at its deficit, mixing tips at the net and deep shots at the Havre defense to stay in the game.
Ranes sewed up the match from the serving line in the contest.
"We made some nice improvements," Chinook head coach Paula Molyneaux said. "Offensively, we were a lot strong, and on the block we were a lot stronger."
Katie Hoffman led the Sugarbeeters with eight of the team's 25 kills. Sophomore Kelsie Whitney had 13 assists to aide at the net.
Caroline Moores had all 16 Chinook digs in the match.
Havre def. Chinook 15-9, 15-4, 17-15
Havre Kills 27 (Erin Patera 9); Aces 15 (Patera, Tiffany Shrauger, Amy Ranes 3); Blocks 5 (Ranes 2); Assists 19 (Lisa Wagner 10); Digs 38 (Teri Sherrill 8)
Chinook Kills 25 (K. Hoffman 8); Aces 3 (H. Schoen 2); Blocks 2; Assists 13 (K. Whitney 13); Digs 16 (O. Moores 16).
