Pirates improve from meet, get two wins at Prentice

GILMAN VOLLEYBALL

The Gilman Pirates got some things fixed from meet one to meet two while continuing to incorporate their young talent with their experienced volleyball veterans during Saturday’s Prentice Invitational.

The Pirates went 2-2 in varsity play, tying Mercer for third place behind 3-1 Prentice and Three Lakes. Gilman beat Mercer in round one in its first match of the day, which also included a match against Ladysmith’s JV at the end of the day.

Head coach Janice Komanec was encouraged by the improvements Gilman made after winning a match and losing one two days earlier at Thorp.

“Between practices and these first competitions, it’s been encouraging as a coach to already see the improvements that each player is making on the court,” Komanec said. “I’m excited to see how much further this team will get in the next weeks as we draw closer to conference play.”

Mercer, an annual contender in the Indianhead Conference, took the first set in Gilman’s opening match 25-22, but the Pirates answered with a 25-22 win of their own in set two to force a decisive third set. The set was tied 13-13 when freshman Kenlyn Kroeplin came off the bench and put two big serves in play, including an ace, to help the Pirates secure the 15-13 win.

Kroeplin, Kayleigh James and Claire Drier are three freshmen who will be expected to contribute on the varsity squad this season and will also be gaining valuable court time with Gilman’s JV team. They join classmate Abby Chaplinski, who has won the varsity setter’s role to start the fall.

“Ava Gunderson was not able to attend the tournament on Saturday, so Claire stepped in for a front left side roll and did a great job,” Komanec said. “We needed Kenlyn to step in to do some serving in one of our rotations, and she also did a great job.”

After a bye, Gilman came out flat and lost set one to Prentice 25-7. The Pirates regrouped and stayed alive by winning set two 27-25 and they sent an exciting third set into overtime, but Prentice came out on top 19-17.

“Overall, we had multiple times during the day when we were down a set in a match or down points in a set and the girls pulled it together and bounced back,” Komanec said. “This is great to see a group of girls forging ahead to the next point or the next set while pushing any mistakes behind them.”

Gilman’s second win of the day followed when the Pirates were in command throughout during a 25-15, 25-14 win over Flambeau.

After a lunch break and another bye, the Pirates hit another sluggish stretch, dropping their first set to Three Lakes 25-8. The Pirates bounced back in set two, but the Blue Jays, who are off to a 9-1 start, held them off 25-23.

Prentice beat Three Lakes in their head-to-head matchup 2-1. Three Lakes swept Mercer, while Flambeau was 0-4

against the other varsity squads.

Gilman used the Ladysmith match to do some mixing and matching.

“Abby Chaplinski, will not be able to attend the Medford tournament (Sept. 25) due to a family event, so the Ladysmith match gave us an opportunity to mix Kenlyn in to do some setting for the team,” Komanec said.

For the day, Tatum Weir led Gilman with 30 kills, while Gracie Tallier had 22 kills. Drier came through with 12, Emma Grunseth added seven and Hannah Vick had six. Kya Dietzler had a big day with 20 aces, while Grunseth and Drier had nine each and Tallier had eight. Weir and Grunseth had five block kills apiece.

Chaplinski had 68 assists. Dig leaders included Drier with 40, Tallier with 30, Chaplinski with 29, James with 26 and Dietzler with 22.

Gilman will get two more good tests before opening Eastern Cloverbelt Conference play on Sept. 14. Tonight, Thurs- Gilman volleyball

day, the Pirates will visit Athens. Abbotsford comes to Gilman for the Pirates’ home opener on Sept. 9.

1-1 at Thorp

Gilman opened the new season by going 1-1 Thursday at the Thorp Triangular.

The host Cardinals outscored Gilman 25-19, 25-16, using late surges in each set to pull away. The Pirates responded with a 25-14, 25-18 sweep of Owen-Withee.

“Our skill and ability was equal to that of Thorp’s, however we made too many errors and mistakes in our first match of the season,” Komanec said. “When we went back to look at the match, we saw that most of our points we had earned. However we had given Thorp many of theirs on hitting errors, serving errors, communication errors and blocking errors. We found that we had actually given them over half of their 50 points. Though it’s tough to look back at that, it’s also a very good lesson right from the get go.”

Komanec said the Pirates controlled both sets against the Blackhawks.

Chaplinski had 26 assists on the night, while Tallier put down 10 kills, Gunderson and Weir had seven each, Grunseth had four and Vick added three. Weir had six block kills.

Chaplinski served five aces, Dietzler had four and Tallier and James added two apiece. Drier led Gilman with 16 digs, Tallier and Chaplinski each had nine, James had eight and Dietzler had five.

“At our Friday practice we talked a lot about communication,” Komanec said. “We have some youth on the court and even returning players that have new roles, so we just need to work those things out. We discussed and physically worked on how to avoid those communication errors so we can keep the ball in play. And in those out-of-system plays we need to be able to send a solid ball over and get ready to play defense rather than give up the point. We also spent time working on our block. We worked a lot on going up stronger and making sure that we are pressing over with our hands and returning the ball to the opponent’s court.”

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