The regular season concludes Tuesday ….

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.