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Belgrade stops Ponies on senior night

The Havre High volleyball team lost to the Belgrade Panthers early in the season, but after four straight Central A conference victories, the Blue Ponies were hoping to pull even with the Panthers in the final regular season standings.

Unfortunately for Havre, despite a strong set early in the match, things didn’t quite go as planned on senior night Saturday at the HHS gymnasium, as Belgrade swept the match by the scores of 25-20, 25-15 and 25-13. Havre finished the season 4-2 in the Central A and will head to the Eastern A Divisional tournament this week in Glendive as the second seed out of the conference.

“For a set, we played really well,” HHS head coach Tamecia Jarvis said. “It’s easy to have fun when you are winning, but sometimes, when we start losing, we kind of start to shut down and we have to fix that before divisionals.”

In the first set against Belgrade, a traditional power in Class A volleyball, the Ponies held their own and early on, after an ace by Sydney Wilting, Havre led 8-7. A kill by Kadyn Acor put Havre up 11-10, however after the two teams were tied 18-18, Belgrade closed the opening set on a 7-2 run to win 25-20, grabbing a 1-0 advantage.

“Of course, it was a positive that we played so well in that first set,” Jarvis said. “The girls know that they can do it. We just need to keep our heads a little before and stick together as a team when things get tough.”

In the second set, Havre again was hanging right with the Panthers and when Jessa Chvilicek drilled home a kill, the score was tied 7-7. From that point, though, the Panthers outscored Havre 18-7 in the set, taking the win 25-15. In the third, the Panthers took control early and never relinquished it, winning 25-13 to notch the second sweep of Havre this season.

“Again, we came out and played really well in that first set,” Jarvis said. “I am not sure what happened after that, we just need to stick together and try to work our way through when things aren’t going well.”

Belgrade finished the match out-hitting the Ponies 31-17 in terms of kills. The Panthers also beat Havre in every other category outside of blocks. Bailey Christensen led all hitters in the match with 17 kills; Cassidy Acor led in the same category for Havre with eight. She also pitched in with two blocks. Sam Oliver also had a solid performance in the defeat for HHS, as she notched 12 assists and 13 digs in the defeat.

Havre will be back in action Thursday when the Ponies will take on Miles City in their opening match at the Eastern A Divisional tournament.

Belgrade def Havre

25-20, 25-15, 25-13

Havre - Kills 17 (Cassidy Acor 8); Assists 12 (Sam Oliver 10); Digs 39 (Oliver 13); Blocks 4 (Cassidy Acor 2); Aces 4 (Sydney Wilting, Oliver).

Belgrade - Kills 31 (Bailey Christensen 17); Assits 28 (Jaiden Blakely 22); Digs (Taylor Christensen 12); Aces 17 (Vada Barkell 5).

 

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