Five-set thriller goes Colby’s way in Cloverbelt VB opener

GILMAN VOLLEYBALL

AND MATT FREY

SPORTS EDITOR

Gilman hosted the Colby Hornets on Tuesday in their Eastern Cloverbelt Conference volleyball opener for the Pirates. The two teams always seem to play each other tough. Tuesday night was no different, with a five-set battle won by the Hornets.

The loss followed a 3-0 loss to Abbotsford in Tuesday’s home opener. After a fast start, Gilman slid to 6-4 overall with its third straight defeat.

This match had numerous momentum swings and runs by both teams.

The first set was a back-and-forth most of the way. A little over halfway through, the score was tied 13-13. That is when the Pirates began to pull away. They took the lead on an errant serve by the Hornets and slowly extended that lead in the first set.

The Pirates led 22-18, but the Hornets took the next point to cut the Pirates lead to 22-19. Colby then served an ace, but that was negated by a rotation error by the Hornets. The Pirates took the point and led 23-19. Gilman’s Claire Drier served an ace to make the score 24-19 and Bryn Hendricks finished off the Hornets in the first set with a kill.

The second set of the night was much different from the first. Colby got out to a fast 5-0, thanks in large part to Daelyn Rieck’s serving. The Hornets rode the momentum from this fast start the rest of the set, winning the set 25-17.

The third set started much like the second, with Colby getting out to a quick 5-1 lead. The Hornets kept control most of the set, extending their lead to 19-14 at one point. But that is when the Pirates fought back and regained the momentum. The Pirates tied the score at 19-19 led by the serving of Danielle Mann. The teams went back and forth, but Gilman was finally able to take its first lead of the set when Abby Chaplinski served an ace to make the score 23-22. After a Colby timeout, Chaplinski would serve another ace. The Pirates got one more point and took the set 25-23.

Despite the rally by the Pirates in game three, Colby continued to fight and started out fast yet again in game four. The Hornets started out with a fast 7-0 lead again by the serving of Rieck. Gilman would fight back to make it as close as 9-7 before Colby pulled away yet again. The Hornets took a 14-7 lead, but the Pirates went on a 6-0 run to get within 1413. Colby then took back Gilman’s momentum and pulled away, securing the fourth set victory 25-17.

“Abbotsford and Colby each had completely different pace of offense and yet we found ourselves kind of scrambling in both situations to match them rather than sticking to our pace and what we do well,” Gilman head coach Janice Komanec said.

In the deciding fifth match, the set was back-and-forth early on. Both teams had small leads. The Pirates tied the score 9-9. But the Hornets took the lead on the next serve on a block. The Hornets would not look back from that point, winning the set, 15-9 and winning the game.

The Pirates were led in digs by Chaplinski with 33 and Kayleigh James with 28. Chaplinski also added four aces, while Drier had three.

Jaylyn Orth had two blocks for the Pirates. Chaplinski, Mann and Emilia Reid had one each.

Mann led the Pirates with 11 kills. Chaplinski had eight kills on the night, all of which were setter dumps.

“We have to become stronger at the net defensively,” Komanec said. “We are not getting enough blocks and we are having too many blocking errors and giving away kills.”

Chaplinski led the passing attack with 17 assists for the Pirates.

“Our passing, especially on serve receive, will continue to be a focus,” Komanec said. “Like any team, when our passing is more consistent, our offense can be stronger and has more options. This team can do some really nice things offensively when we pass well.”

Gilman is at Prentice tonight, Thursday, for a non-conference match with the Buccaneers that figures to be another even matchup. Gilman returns to conference play next week by hosting Spencer on Tuesday and visiting Owen-Withee on Thursday. Both matches start at 7:15 p.m.

“We continue to see some great plays on both offense and defense and need to keep pressing ahead fighting for those moments more consistently,” Komanec said.

Falcons 3, Pirates 0

The sets got closer as the match went along Thursday, but the Pirates weren’t ever able to grab the lead at crunch time and were swept 3-0 by a solid Abbotsford squad in Thursday’s home opener.

Led by seniors Sydney Falteisek, Briseida Escalera, Sommer Brodhagen and Calley Ruesch, the Falcons were able to offset any run Gilman made at them and improved to 11-3 overall at the time.

Gilman led the first set 7-2, but a 14-3 surge by Abbotsford made it 16-10 in the Falcons’ favor and turned the set around. Gilman got within 18-14, but two Falteisek aces and a Ruesch kill put the momentum back in Abbotsford’s hands and the Falcons took the set 25-14.

Orth’s short push, a Drier kill and a James ace nudged Gilman out to a 4-2 lead in game two, but that was countered by a 7-2 spurt from the Falcons that was capped by a Falteisek ace. The Pirates battled back, tying the set at 12-12, when a 5-0 run put them in another hole. Hendricks got a kill, Mann connected on a back-row attack and Drier got a kill from the front middle to help the Pirates pull within 19-18. Drier’s attempt at a tying spike was wide of the sideline by no more than an inch or two and Abbotsford seized the opportunity, going on a 5-1 run from there for a 25-19 win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

Gilman jumped ahead 3-0 and 5-2 in the third set, tied it at 9-9 on a Mann ace and took an 11-10 lead on an Orth kill. Again, Abbotsford got on a little run just when it needed one, going on a 6-2 minirun that included a Brodhagen kill and a free-ball tip at the net from Falteisek. The Falcons’ lead grew to four when Gilman made one last push to try to extend the match.

Mann’s push off a block was successful, then she had another back-row kills and an ace to pull the Pirates within 2019. Kenlyn Kroeplin’s tough serve went unreturned, tying it at 21-21 and a Drier kill put Gilman in front 22-21.

But a missed serve, a back-row kill from Ruesch and a Ruesch ace gave the Falcons match point. The Pirates held off the Falcons for a point, thanks to a missed serve, but Falteisek’s kill off a quick set from Faith Sperl ended it at 2523.