By Tiffany L. Rehbein
What do you get when you cross the Havre Blue Ponies with the Park Rangers?
Hopefully, for Blue Pony fanatics, a conference win.
The Blue Ponies could seal a first-place finish and win the Central A regular-season title with a win over Livingston on Friday.
It is the final conference match of the season for Havre. The Ponies will play at the Windy City Classic on Saturday in their final preparation before the Central A divisional to be held at Dillon on March 2-4.
With their conference season over, Lewistown is first in the North Subdivision with an 8-2 conference mark and 15-5 overall record.
Havre is 7-2, 15-4, with Livingston yet to be played. The Ponies defeated Livingston 15-10, 3-15, 15-11, 15-10 when the two teams met earlier this season at Havre.
Belgrade, who is also finished with its conference schedule, is No. 1 in the South Subdivision with a 9-1 conference record and 19-4 overall mark. Dillon is second at 5-5, 10-8.
And it's Havre's individual leaders who have helped to carry the team to its success.
Erin Patera has been a common name as a Central A leader throughout her entire high school career, and this season, her final as a Blue Pony, is no different.
Patera moved up one notch in the kills category this week. She is currently third in the league with 216, averaging 3.08 per game.
Livingston's Angela Bausch is No. 1, averaging 3.64 per game, and Lewistown's Janalee Stokken is second, averaging 3.15 per game.
Patera has maintained her second-place standing in aces. She has tabulated 67 on the season, averaging almost one per game, which is a slight improvement over last week's mark.
Patera jumped from 10th place to seventh in the blocks category. She has 30 thus far, averaging .460 per game. She had four solo blocks against Lewistown during last weekend's conference win.
Defensively, Patera is fifth with 167 digs. She averages 2.59 per game for Havre.
Senior Lisa Wagner has maintained her top spot with a 98.2 percent serving mark. Wagner has served an amazing 280-of-285 balls this season.
She is also sixth with 253 assists, averaging 3.71 per game.
Classmate Kirsten Kuka jumped to seventh in the league with 244 assists. Kuka averages 3.41 per game. She had 27 helpful sets during the course of two matches last weekend.
Senior Tiffany Shrauger is still hot in the aces category for Havre, also. She has 54 on the year, averaging .714 per game. She upped her average from last week, when she was averaging .702 per game.
Anaconda's Kelli Phillip leads the category, averaging .908 per game. Belgrade's Kristin Bechtold is third sandwiched between Patera and Shrauger averaging .839 aces per game.
But Shrauger's biggest move was made defensively. After collecting 28 digs during the course of last weekend, Shrauger is fourth in the division with 175 digs. She averages 2.67 per game.
Dillon boasts some strong passers in Lynsey Monaco and Kathryn Hunt. Monaco averages 2.92 digs per game, while Hunt averages 2.74.
As a team, Havre, who served just 88 percent against Lewistown, dipped to a 90.29 serving percentage. They are second in the league, behind Lewistown who serves 90.3 percent. Last week, the Ponies averaged 90.65 percent serving.
