Blue Ponies start over at divisionals

This season has been one of ups and downs for the Havre High volleyball team. But now, with the Eastern A Divisional Tournament here, the Blue Ponies have one last chance to put it all together.

The Ponies come into the divisional tournament with an 0-6 record in Central A conference play. Havre will open in what amounts to a play-in game, even though every team is guaranteed two games, against Laurel tonight at 7 in Lewistown.

A win would get HHS into the quarterfinals against Billings Central Thursday at 10 a.m. A loss, however, would send Havre into the loser-out bracket, where they would likely play either Miles City or Sidney.

“I think that there are some really good teams,” HHS head coach Tamecia Jarvis said. “But for us, it really depends on which team shows up. If we come out right away and play hard and play together, I think we have a chance.”

Laurel was one of the lower teams in the Eastern A standings. The two teams met at divisionals a season ago and Havre was able to knock off the Locomotives, but with zero conference wins to their credit, a fast start will be important for the Ponies.

“We just can’t afford to come out and get down 6-0,” Jarvis said. “We need to come out ready to play from the beginning of the match. We have the potential to play really well and we have at times, we just need to try and bring it all together at one time.”

One of the issues for Havre during the regular season was its inability to kill the ball consistently. The Ponies had just one player ranked in the top 10 in kills as Camryn Huston is 10th in the Central A with 135 kills. Havre also struggled overall when it came to hitting. Havre had a hitting percentage of .099, which was third in the Central A, while also averaging just 7.1 kills per set, which ranked fourth.

However, the Ponies are stronger when it comes to defense and specifically the block. Havre ranked second in the Central A with 1.7 blocks per game. Huston was sixth in the regular season with 28.5 blocks and was joined in the top 10 by Jessa Chvilicek, who had 25 and Emilee Cariveau, who added 16.

In addition to doing well on the block, Havre has also scored points consistently this season off of serves. Sam Oliver led the Central A during the regular season with 54 aces, followed by Katie Donaldson, who was third with 46. Alex Donaldson was sixth with 43 and Logan Huebsch was also in the top 10 with 37. Oliver was third in the conference in assists with 335 and in digs, Katie Donaldson was the top performer for Havre, as she ranked seventh with 197.

“Hitting is going to be a big thing for us,” Jarvis said. “It will probably come down to which team makes the fewest mistakes. We are going to try and get more of our taller girls in there to try and get some more blocks, but if we can limit our mistakes, we will have a chance.”

While Havre and Laurel are playing in one play-in match, on the other side of the bracket, Miles City and Sidney will meet to play their way into the quarterfinals. Belgrade will await the winner of that match. The other first-round matchups will feature Lewistown and Glendive, as well as Hardin and Livingston. Belgrade and Lewistown are the top seeds from the Central A. On the other side, Billings Central is the top seed from the Eastern A, followed by Hardin and Glendive.

Havre and Laurel will get things underway tonight at 7 at the Eastern A Tournament in Lewistown. The top four teams advance to next week’s Class A state tournament in Bozeman.