Pony spikers knock off Rustlers

The Havre High volleyball team made it an even split with the two Great Falls schools this season by downing the CMR Rustlers in four games Saturday afternoon at the C.M. Russell Fieldhouse in Great Falls.

The Ponies came into Saturday's match hoping to rebound from a loss to the Great Falls High Bison a week ago and they did so by defeating the Rustlers by scores of 23-25, 25-12, 25-23 and 25-16.

Havre opened the match by dropping the first game to the Rustlers, but then rebounded to rout CMR in game two 25-12. The pivotal point in the match came in game three when the Ponies were able to build another lead only to have CMR come back on them. However, Havre managed to hold on for the 25-23 win and then go on to win the match in the fourth game.

"The third game was big because we let them come back on us and that has been one of our problems at times this season," said Havre High head coach Bill Huebsch. "But the girls responded and we were able to finish them off."

"Overall, the girls played pretty well," Huebsch added. "We started off kind of slow and we dropped the first game. But the girls bounced back and started to play much better after that."

Going into the match Huebsch was hoping that his young team would eliminate a lot of the crucial mistakes that it committed in the loss to the Bison. According to Huebsch, they accomplished all of their goals.

"We said that in order to be successful we could only miss five serves in this match and we only missed four," Huebsch said. "We also knew we had to hit much better as a team and we ended up having the best hitting match of the season. I was real pleased with how the girls responded to that."

The Ponies did indeed hit well as a team. They had 56 total kills on the day, with Kristi Owens leading the way with 21. Alicia Overcast added 16 kills. The Ponies also had eight aces, including two apiece from Brittany Vandersloot, Alexa Lipp and Samantha Seidel.

"Kristi Owens and Samantha Seidel both had an outstanding game for us," Huebsch said. "Kristi just had a huge day and she was really creative with the ball and she was really smart at the net."

"Samantha came in and gave us a huge boost, especially serving the ball," Huebsch added.

The Ponies are now 9-6 on the season. They will have just one day off before they return to action on Tuesday night when they travel to Chinook for a rematch with the Beeters.

Havre def. CMR

23-25, 25-12, 25-23, 25-16

Havre - Kills 56 (Kristi Owens 21, Alicia Overcast 16), Assists 45 (Alexa Lipp 42), Aces 8 (Brittany Vandersloot 2, Alexa Lipp 2, Samantha Seidel 2), Digs 78 (Alexa Lipp 13, Brittany Vandersloot 12), Blocks 3 (Kelsey Smith 1).

CMR - Kills 38 (Kellie Radovich 10, Whitney Polcih 9), Assists 28 (Emily Horton 27), Aces 4 (Jordan Skovran 1, Tina Kelly 1), Digs 68 (Kellie Radovich 14, Tina Kelly 11), Blocks Shantell Marquis 2, Whitney Polich 1).