GILMAN VOLLEYBALL - Pirates sweep Athens, take both matches at Thorp triangular
GILMAN VOLLEYBALL
In front of the home crowd for the first time in the new volleyball season, the Gilman Pirates took charge midway through each set and earned a 3-0 sweep over visiting Athens Tuesday in non-conference play.
It was the second win in the season’s first week for Gilman over Athens, a team that has had a lot of success in recent years but it also trying to find its way early on after losing a highly-successful graduating class.
The Pirates, who are off to a 5-3 start, got balanced offense with four players getting at least eight kills and they served well. Head coach Janice Komanec said the Pirates know their offense still needs more consistency for Gilman to get where it eventually wants to be.
“It was a nice three-game sweep for us in our first home game of the season,” Komanec said. “Overall, we passed pretty well and were able to get our middles in the mix, which is something we definitely want to be doing. But our errors need to be decreased. Our hitting errors almost matched our kill totals overall as a team. We are giving too many points away and we were too dependent upon Athens errors to give us points rather than earning them.”
The Pirates trailed early in the first set 9-6 but took the lead for good at 12-11 on a Claire Drier kill. Addy Vick, who gave the Pirates a lift while getting more time due to the injury absence of senior Jaylyn Orth, teamed up with Aubrey Mann for a block and then got a kill of her own, followed by two Drier aces and a Mann kill. Vick tipped an Athens free ball for an 18-11 lead. Kylee Copenhaver found the deep corner with a kill and Drier powered an attack off an attempted block late as Gilman closed out game one 25-18.
Athens jumped ahead 7-1 in game two, but Gilman quickly regrouped and took a 14-9 lead during a serving run from Kayleigh James. Drier had a couple of kills and an ace late and Vick added a kill as well in the 25-17 win.
The Pirates broke away from a 12-10 lead in game three behind a serving run from Allie Olynick. Olynick, who did not miss a serve in the match, put the exclamation point on the 25-15 win by putting down an Athens overpass on set point.
Drier had nine kills, Vick had eight and Olynick and Copenhaver each had five. Mann added two. Drier fired off four aces, Abby Chaplinski had two and James, Olynick and Jaylen Copenhaver each added one. Chaplinski had 24 assists.
Chaplinski had 12 digs, Kenlyn Kroeplin and Jaylen Copenhaver had nine each while Drier and James had seven apiece. Gilman had four blocks in the match. Vick had two. Drier and Mann each had one.
“Our pace overall was good,” Komanec said. “We had some stretches of high energy and momentum and we need to strive for that through the whole match.”
Gilman makes its annual trip to the Prentice Invitational on Saturday. Play there starts at 9 a.m. The Pirates will be in Abbotsford for a non-conference match with the Falcons that starts at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
2-0 at Thorp
On Thursday, Gilman showed a knack for coming through when it counted while earning wins over Thorp and Owen-Withee at Thorp’s annual triangular.
Against Thorp, the Pirates fell short 25-23 in back-and-forth first set and then found themselves staring at a loss, trailing 17-9 in set two. Gilman chipped away, getting two kills from Kylee Copenhaver and one from Olynick to get within 19-17. Drier got a touch on an attack to tie it at 22-22, but the Cardinals got the next two points to reach match point.
A hitting error gave Gilman the serve back and the Pirates scored three straight points, the last coming on powerful swings by Drier to steal the game 26-24. The Pirates then got hot behind a serving run by Olynick and took a 9-2 lead in the decisive third set. Thorp rallied to get within two, but Mann got a key kill in the clinching run that ended a 15-12 win.
“As much as I would have liked to see us come out stronger against Thorp, it was very encouraging to see our team come back not only by points in set two, but also by sets in the overall match,” Komanec said. “We were down 0-1 in the match and down by seven or eight points in set two. That deficit could have brought our girls down mentally, but instead they pushed ahead for the win in set two and carried the momentum into set three.”
In their first match with Owen-Withee, the Pirates jumped ahead 12-6 in game one but fell behind late and faced set point at 2421. Kylee Copenhaver got an attack to work and that was followed by a Jaylen Copenhaver ace, a Drier kill and a Blackhawk error to give Gilman a 25-24 lead. Drier’s winner made it 26-25. Owen-Withee tied it, but Jaylen Copenhaver’s diving save on a tough serve led to Gilman winning the point on a net vio- lation and a passing error gave Gilman the 28-26 win.
The momentum carried into game two where the Pirates jumped ahead 10-3 and 178 and didn’t look back in a 25-17 win.
“Both of our first sets against Owen-Withee and Thorp started out slow,” Komanec said. “Owen Withee is a pretty consistent team and therefore we needed to earn our points and not depend on their errors. We were able to stick out set one and then set two was much easier as we became more consistent and successful offensively.
“We’ve also been working on consistency in our serving and being mentally tough to be strong servers when we are down and the game is on the line,” Komanec added. “We had some players lead us in some scoring runs with some strong, consistent serving in both sets when we needed it that night.”
Medford’s Owen Klussendorf (11) brings down Onalaska running back Cameron Cornett with help from Alex Faude (r.) and Paxton Rothmeier early in the second quarter of Friday’s 33-18 loss to the Hilltoppers. Two plays later, Cornett scored on a 60-yard run to give Onalaska a 20-12 lead. MATT FREY/THE STAR NEWS
