Havre High spikers finish at Central A rival Lewistown

It has been a long season for the Havre High volleyball team. But before the Blue Ponies move on to the Central A Divisional tournament, they will have one more shot at knocking off their archrival, Lewistown.

The Eagles, who are among the leaders in the Central A conference standings, are looking to shore up their seed in the divisional tournament, which will begin Nov. 7 in Browning, while the Ponies are simply looking to build momentum going into postseason play.

The Eagles and Ponies will renew their rivalry Saturday in Lewistown on senior night with the match set to get underway at 6 p.m.

The first time these teams met earlier in the season in Havre, back on Sept. 26, the Eagles easily dispatched of the Ponies in three games by the scores of 24-14, 25-23 and 25-17.

HHS, which is just 3-14 overall and 2-5 in conference play, will need to play its best match of the season in order to compete with the Eagles, who are seemingly in contention for the state championship ever year.

“It’s our last game of the season, and we are away, which is good because we play better on the road. We just have to come in with the underdog mentality,” HHS head coach Melanie Skoyen said. “We really have to come in and handle their serve and try to put some pressure on them. If we can do that, than anything is possible.”

It will start for the Ponies with Dani Wagner, who sets for Havre and is also the team’s top outside hitter. Another top hitter for the Ponies is Reggie Bernard, while Carlene Rennick has become a force on the defensive block.

The other Havre players that will contribute for the Ponies against the Eagles include Madison Huebsch, Naomi Terry, Jordyn Warren, Samy Huston, Jacey McDonald and Megan Erickson. Defensively, the Ponies will need to contain Michelle Monger, who dominated in the first match between these two teams and registered 13 kills in the Eagles victory.

Monger is easily one of the top hitters in the Central A and is joined by other key contributors such as Jaree Mane, who had 14 digs and three aces in the win over Havre and Mikayla Comes, who had 30 assists in the first go around with HHS.

“We just have to do a good job with our serve-receive and make sure that we do a good job with our block,” Skoyen said. “(Monger) is coming up the middle a lot of times, so we need to make sure that we always have a double block there to stop her.”

Regardless of the outcome, the Ponies have no chance of finishing higher than fourth in the Central A, which means they will once again play Browning in the opening game of the tournament. Yet, a win over the powerful Eagles would be a nice feather in their cap and would add a jolt of much-needed confidence for a team that has struggled all season long.

“We haven’t beat Lewistown in quite a few years,” Skoyen said. “So if we could beat them, I think that would really give us a boost of confidence going into divisionals. But it’s all going to come down to our hitting errors and whether or not we can limit those.”

The Ponies and Eagles will meet Saturday in Lewistown with the match scheduled to start at 6 p.m.