Prentice 3, Gilman 1 - ‘Playing for a Cure’ pink-out match Oct. 3 in Rhinelander

into conference play over the next couple of weeks. Tonight, Thursday, the Pirates are in Neillsville. They’ll head to Loyal Tuesday for a tough matchup with the Greyhounds, who have looked like one of the conference’s best team through the season’s first month. A struggling Greenwood squad visits Gilman on Oct. 3.

All of these varsity matches start at 7:15 p.m.

Prentice 3, Gilman 1

The Pirates have played several competitive matches with Prentice in

The Medford at Rhinelander volleyball match on Thursday, Oct. 3 is being designated as “Playing for a Cure” pinkout game.

Through this event, Rhinelander volleyball and Rhinelander Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) are supporting a School District of Rhinelander employee, 2004 Hodag alumni and community member who has recently been diagnosed with stage 1 cancer. Holly Klaas is an educational sign language interpreter, who started working in Rhinelander in 2009. She has worked for the past 16 years in every school in the district, from elementary all the way up to the high school. She currently works at Crescent Elementary School.

There will be $5 serving games, $5 lotus drinks, $1 memory/honor wall and a 50/50 raffle offered. All proceeds and donations will go toward lost wages, daycare, medical bills, gas, food, and anything else the Klaas family may need.

The varsity match in the Jim Miazga Gymnasium starts at 7 p.m. Beforehand, the JV2 match is set for 5 p.m., the JV match starts at 5:30 p.m. and the JV3 match will take place at 6 p.m. recent years but have had a hard time winning them, which happened again Thursday in a 3-1 home loss.

Gilman had its chances, reaching game point in game two but eventually falling short 27-25 and pulling within 23-23 with a late rally in game four, only to see the Bucs score the next two points to secure the set and the match.

Gilman is 1-8 against Prentice since 2021.

One of Gilman’s key focus areas this season has been trying to limit the unforced errors and keep balls in play. The Pirates struggled in that area in the first two sets and it cost them. That was especially true in the first set where 15 of Prentice’s points could be attributed to attack or serve errors. Still, that set was close at 14-12 following a tip kill and deep push from Chaplinski and a Kylee Copenhaver kill. Aces by Aaliyah Murphy and Kali Heikkinen started to give Prentice separation and the Buccaneers pulled away for a 25-19 win.

“We served 95% as a team so our serving was consistent, however, our hitting percentage as a team was low,” Gilman head coach Janice Komanec said. “We had too many errors and gave away too many points. We will continue to work to find consistency and confidence in our offensive attack.”

Gilman’s struggles continued to start game two as Abby Schuetz led an early charge that put Prentice ahead 14-5 with four kills. But Jaylen Copenhaver made some plays, getting a push tip to fall and a couple of aces to get Gilman going. Her serving run, which included a couple Drier kills and a big block from Orth, tied it at 15-15. Olynick’s deep push put Gilman ahead 17-16. The teams basically traded points until Mann deflected an attack off a block and then put one on the floor for set point at 24-23. Prentice scored two, Drier got a big kill to tie it, but two errors allowed the Bucs to escape.

An Olynick kill tied the third set at 1010 and then, with Alison Krizan serving, Gilman put together a run of seven points, capped by an Orth block of a back-row attack by Heikkinen, who reached the 1,000 career dig milestone during the match. Chaplinski’s scoring push made it 20-12, but the Bucs didn’t go away easily. They crept within 24-22 before, right out of a timeout, Drier’s well-executed tip from the right side off a Chaplinski set won it 25-22.

Olynick blocked Schuetz for a 10-7 lead that went to 11-8 in game four, but Prentice got a sideout on a Schuetz kill and then went on a 12-point run with Sophie Staroba serving to go up 21-11. Kylee Copenhaver’s kill finally ended the run. With Jaylen Copenhaver serving, Gilman roared right back to tie it at 23-23, highlighted by a big save by libero Kayleigh James that helped Gilman win its 22nd point. Heikkinen got a tip to break the tie and the Pirates mishandled an Emma Dettmering serve to end it.

Drier had 11 kills, Jaylen Copenhaver had 10 and Olynick and Mann added seven each. Chaplinski had 42 assists, while James had 42 digs. Drier had 18 digs, while Chaplinski and Jaylen Copenhaver had 12 each and Kenlyn Kroeplin had nine. Jaylen Copenhaver had four aces. Olynick led Gilman with three blocks.