Ponies upset in opening round

The Havre High volleyball team had an old demon come back to haunt it in the first round of the Central A divisional volleyball tournament Thursday afternoon at the Belgrade Special Events Center.

As has happened often this season, the Ponies couldn't put away a team when they needed to. After taking a 2-1 lead, Havre allowed the Anaconda Copperheads to remain in the match and rally to a 3-2 win.

After starting slow and dropping the first game of their opening round match with the Anaconda Copperheads by a score of 23-25, the Ponies cruised in the next two games by scores of 25-18 and 25-19 to take a two games-to-one lead. However, Havre could not close out the Copperheads as they squandered an early lead in game four before falling 25-20 and then they dropped the decisive fifth game by a score of 15-11.

Alicia Overcast led the Ponies with a match-high 15 kills and Alexa Lipp dropped in 40 assists in the heartbreaking loss. The Copperheads got 10 kills from Brianna Ternes.

The loss to Anaconda drops Havre into this morning's loser-out bracket where they will face the Browning Indians. The Ponies will have to win three straight matches in order to put themselves back into contention for a state tournament berth.

In other first-round matchups Dillon defeated Browning by scores of 25-18, 25-10 and 25-12. Top seeded Lewistown routed Belgrade 25-11, 25-15 and 25-16 and Livingston outlasted Butte Central 21-25, 18-25, 25-16, 25-22 and 15-11. In Thursday's quarterfinal round Dillon routed Anaconda 25-18, 25-21 and 25-16 and Lewistown downed Livingston 25-19, 25-16 and 24-14.

Anaconda def. Havre

25-23, 19-25, 18-25, 25-20, 15-11.

Havre - Kills 46 (Alicia Overcast 15), Aces 13(Samantha Seidel), Assists 44 (Alexa Lipp 40), Digs 97 (Brittany Vandersloot 21), Blocks 3 (3 with 1).

Anaconda - Kills 40 (Brianna Ternes 10), Aces 11 (Kristy Mihelic 3, Kalista Kopp 3), Blocks 13 (Heather Jones 7), Digs 86 (Rae Hamilton 18), Assists 29 (Rae Hamilton 25).