Maroons sweep Blue Ponies

There are some matches a team just wishes it could forget. Saturday at home.

Saturday afternoon at the Havre High gymnasium in Havre, the Central A Blue Ponies hosted the conference rival Butte Central Maroons, a rivalry dominated by the Ponies for years. But this time around it was the Maroons sweeping the Ponies in three games by scores of 25-18, 25-19 and 25-14.

With the loss the Ponies fell to 3-2 in the conference and 5-6 overall. And with the win the Maroons improved to 4-2 in the conference and 6-2 overall.

The loss came just two days after HHS shocked Class AA Great Falls High.

"We didn't come to play at all," Havre High head coach Melanie Skoyen said.

"Where do I draw the line between keeping positive and saying it's only mid season and if you're not going to come to play don't come at all." Skoyen added. "That's where I am at now and it's tough, I know it's supposed to be a rebuilding year, but we are getting wins. I just wish they would come out with more energy and spunk like the team I saw Thursday. If we play every match like we did Thursday we will win every game."

Saturday's loss followed one of the Ponies' best matches of the season.

On Thursday, the Ponies defeated the Bison in four games at home. HHS played outstanding and didn't look anything like a rebuilding team. Skoyen thinks overconfidence may have been a factor in the Ponies' loss this weekend, but hitting errors were also a major factor.

"I made sure I was still humbling them," Skoyen said. "When you come off of a huge win like that it is so easy to get over confident and I think that maybe had a little to do with it. But I just didn't see our team tonight."

Through all three games the Ponies struggled to find the court. They had numerous hitting errors, and hurt themselves more than the Maroons hurt them. But the credit has to go to the Maroon's block, and more specifically middle Lexi Murphy. The Maroons totaled 14 blocks as a team, and Murphy had six.

"Lexi Murphy played huge for us in the middle," Butte Central head coach Kaila Minehan said. "She had six blocks, that's exactly what you want your middle to do. She put the ball away when we needed her to and I am very pleased with how she played.

And the Maroons were in control of every game.

Even when the Ponies took over the lead, or held a lead, the Maroons were controlling the tempo and held all the momentum. In game two the Ponies got out to a 17-10 lead, but slowly watched it slip away as the Maroons went on to outscore the Ponies 15-2 to take the game and eventually the match.

Overall it just wasn't a good outing for the Blue Ponies.

Sammy Evans led the Ponies with eight of the team's 21 kills, while Sadie Seidel had five. Seidel also had 13 of the team's 54 digs. Christina Mack led with 14 digs. Juletta Don had one block and Paighton Gilman had two aces. Jaclyn Evans also had 16 assists.

HHS will play again on Saturday when they take to the road to face the Conrad Cowgirls in nonconference play.

Butte Central def. Havre

25-18, 25-19, 25-14

Butte Central - Kills BC 26 (Angela Piazzola 2, Danika Neumann 2, Brynne Kambich 4, Lexie Murphy 3, Mariah Cooney 5, Quinn Peoples 9); Blocks 14 (Lexie Murphy 6,Mariah Cooney 3, Quinn Peoples 4); Assists 22 (Breanne Krzan 20); Aces 4 (Danika Neumann 2, Hannah Stajcar 2); Digs 47 (Danika Neumann 10, Brynne Kambich 6, Breanne Krzan 7, Quinn Peoples 11).

Havre - Kills 21 (Sammy Evans 8, Sadie Seidel 5); Blocks Havre 1 (Juletta Don 1); Assists 19 (Jaclyn Evans 16); Aces 5 (Paighton Gilman 2); Digs 54 (Christina Mack 14, Sadie Seidel 13).