Pirates earn a split in two good conference matches, are in line for 3rd
GILMAN VOLLEYBALL
The Gilman Pirates are in position to clinch third place in the Eastern Cloverbelt Conference tonight, Thursday, after splitting a pair of good matches on their home court this past week.
On Tuesday, Gilman rebounded from a game-one loss and swept the next three games to take a 3-1 win over the Loyal Greyhounds and improve to 4-2 in league play and 8-11 overall.
While getting off to slow starts isn’t ideal, Gilman head coach Janice Komanec said it was a good sign to see the Pirates rebound from first-set losses in both of the week’s matches.
“Both last Thursday and (Tuesday) night we were down the first set and came back and won the second one,” she said. “I’m proud of the girls for buckling down and moving forward to earn set wins even after a first-set loss.
“With Loyal, our team continued to improve on the night,” she added. “Our consistency was going to lead to points on their errors, so we needed to be wise about when to protect the ball and when to be aggressive. The girls gained momentum in each set and won the last two dominantly.”
Loyal jumped ahead 8-0 in game one and fought off a hard Gilman charge that closed the gap to one at 23-22 before the Greyhounds (1-5 ECC) got the last two points to win the set.
Game two was another close one with Gilman pulling out a pivotal 25-22 win. The Pirates eased to 25-15 and 25-16 wins after that.
Gracie Tallier led Gilman with a season- high 16 kills, while Tatum Weir had a strong night too with 14. Ava Gunderson and Emma Grunseth had eight kills each and Hannah Vick added six. Weir also had five block kills, while Vick had four and Grunseth, Gunderson and Abby Chaplinski had two each.
Chaplinski had 44 assists on the night. Kya Dietzler served five aces and Ellie Drier had three. Chaplinski had 19 digs, Tallier had 17, Dietzler had 13 and Drier and Kayleigh James had nine apiece.
The Pirates close conference play tonight, Thursday, at Greenwood (2-4 ECC) with the first serve set for 7:15 p.m. After a COVID year off, the Gilman Invitational returns on Saturday with eight teams in this year’s field. The first round is set for 9 a.m. The regular season concludes Tuesday with the return of Cloverbelt Conference crossover matches. The Western side hosts this year’s matches with Osseo- Fairchild, Bloomer or Stanley-Boyd appearing to be Gilman’s most likely opponent.
Neillsville 3, Gilman 2
In Thursday’s battle for second place in the conference, Gilman bounced back from a 25-18 game-one loss to win the next two sets 25-20 and 25-21. But Neillsville didn’t quit either, winning games four and five to take the match.
“Last Thursday we were able to get sets two and three, however we didn’t push through set four resulting in a setfi ve match,” Komanec said. “We started out inconsistent and had to fight back in to the match, doing so, and then going into extra points.”
Neillsville won game four 25-20. The Pirates fell behind 9-3 to start the fifth game, but went on a mini 3-1 surge behind a Tallier ace and a Gunderson kill to get within 10-6. Neillsville got a kill. After a Gilman timeout, Gunderson and Weir got kills and Chaplinski tipped one. Another Warrior error got Gilman’s deficit down to 11-10.
Weir and Tallier teamed up for a block that tied the game at 12-12. Tallier’s kill tied it at 13-13 and the Pirates reached match point at 15-14 when Grunseth’s bump found a hole in the back left corner of Neillsville’s defense. But, the Warriors got a block, a Gilman error and a kill to win the set 17-15 and the match.
Weir had a season-high 16 kills, while Tallier had eight and Gunderson had six.
Tallier served up four aces, Grunseth had three and Drier and Chaplinski had two apiece. Weir had six block kills, while Grunseth and Gunderson had four each.
Chaplinski had 27 assists. Tallier led the Pirates with 23 digs, while Drier had 18, Chaplinski had 14 and James had 14.
