Havre volleyball continues season with conference matches

While the Havre High volleyball team has already begun its season, it will really get into conference play with a couple of matches against Northeast A rivals. The Blue Ponies start the week tonight on the road with a match against Lewistown. The Ponies will then host Sidney at Havre High Gymnasium on Friday night.

"My expectations are to have the team work together more collectively," HHS head coach Cassie Krueger said. "There's a lot of individually amazing plays and good performances last weekend and I would like to see it as a whole this week."

The Ponies will get on the court tonight to face the Lewistown Golden Eagles. Earlier this season in the tipoff tournament, the Ponies and Golden Eagles split their two-set match. As the Ponies head on the road to face their rivals, Krueger knows they have a battle ahead.

"Lewistown is a very scrappy and offensively smart team," Krueger said. "They already are a rival so they always step it up an extra notch for us so we need to go into the game being very prepared."

The Ponies continue the week on Friday night with a home match against Sidney. The Ponies defeated Sidney in two sets earlier this season, but Krueger knows the Eagles can give them a battle if they are not prepared.

"Sidney is a good team," they said. "They can be unexpected so we need to be ready for anything from them."

The Ponies are already off to a 3-1 start this season and are 1-0 in the Northeast A. As the Ponies look to put themselves in good position when the postseason rolls around, they hope to take care of business in their conference matches this week.

"They're extremely important," Krueger said about the conference matches. "We set a team goal to go out and win divisionals and be the top in our conference so that is what we want to do starting straight out the gate."

While the Ponies are off to a strong start in Krueger's first year, they are coming off a loss to Hardin in three sets at home last weekend. As the Ponies try to move on from that loss and get ready for this week's matches, Krueger hopes to see them improve in several areas.

"Team chemistry, team bonding and coming together," they said about where the Ponies need to improve. "Playing together as a team as one, not letting any communication errors happen. That is our main focus this week."

The HHS volleyball team will play Lewistown tonight at 6 p.m. on the road. The Ponies will then play Sidney at HHS Gymnasium on Friday at 7 p.m.