Peaking at right time, Pirates battle in losses and take 2nd in invite

While they didn’t win them all, the Gilman Pirates, over the past week, looked like a team that’s ready to take its chances in the WIAA Division 4 postseason tournament.

The week and the regular season concluded with a 3-0 home loss Tuesday to Stanley-Boyd in the Cloverbelt Conference’s third-place crossover match. The sweep, however, is deceiving as to how tight the match was.

In fact, Gilman had set point in the first two sets but the Orioles found ways to fend off the Pirates and steal both games before wearing down Gilman in the third set behind their heavy hitter, senior Emily Brenner.

The week also included a 3-1 record and a second-place finish in the Gilman Invitational Saturday and a near-upset Thursday of Division 4’s top-ranked team, Columbus Catholic, in the Eastern Cloverbelt finale for 2022.

The Pirates, now 13-12 overall, drew the seventh seed in their half of the sectional bracket and will host 10th-seeded Frederic in the regional opener Tuesday at 7 p.m. The winner likely gets a trip to second-seeded Clayton for the regional semifinal on Oct. 22.

“This last week of play has been very exciting for us,” Gilman head coach Janice Komanec said. “The competition we have seen and the level we have played at is definitely a momentum builder heading into playoffs. We are going point for point with highcaliber teams. It is so exciting for me as a coach to see each of these athletes putting it all out there and truly believing in what they are capable of as a team.”

Tuesday’s match with Stanley- Boyd began with two opening games that were about as tight as they could get. They featured countless lengthy rallies and girls going to the floor to keep balls alive and big points by both teams.

The largest lead for either team in the first set was four and that came early for Stanley-Boyd at 7-3. A couple of Kenlyn Kroeplin aces, a Gracie Tallier back-row kill and a Danielle Mann ace later, it was 8-8.

The back set to Tallier was made by sophomore Abby Chaplinski, who already reached 1,000 career assists with that pass, which was her third assist of the early going.

Tatum Weir and Tshiya Keepers put down kills for an 11-10 lead. That lead grew to 15-12 and then the see-saw battle to 25 was on. The Orioles nudged back ahead 19-18 on a Brenner ace, but Weir got a sideout with a kill and then got another one off a backset from Chaplinski to put Gilman up 20-19. Brenner gave the Orioles set point at 24-23 with a kill, but Gilman got the next two points to go up 25-24. Brenner pounded an attack off a block, Weir got a kill, Brenner tipped a winner into the middle of Gilman’s defense and she ended a good rally with a kill to put the Orioles up 27-26. Weir’s tip tied it again before Brenner got a kill from the right side and middle Teagen Becker got a tip to fall to finally end the opener at 29-27 for Stanley-Boyd.

Game two was just as tight. Down 12-9, Gilman responded out of a timeout with kills from Tallier and Bryn Hendricks and then a couple of aces from Tallier in a run that put Gilman up 17-14. Gilman pushed its lead to 24-20 and seemed certain to even up the match, but things unraveled for the first time and Stanley-Boyd gladly took advantage with six straight points to win the set 26-24.

Gilman’s spirit wasn’t broken as the Pirates jumped ahead 3-1 to start the third set, but once the Orioles took the lead at 6-5 they never gave it back, closing out the match with a 25-17 win.

Chaplinski finished with 39 assists, a high number for a three-set match. Weir had a big night at the net with 14 kills, while Tallier finished with 10 and Claire Drier had three. Tallier led the team with four aces. Kroeplin served up three. Tallier also led Gilman with 29 digs, another high number for a threeset match. Libero Ellie Drier had 22, Chaplinski had 16 and Kayleigh James added 13. Keepers had three blocks. Claire Drier had two.

Gilman Invite

The Pirates took care of business in pool play Saturday and gave themselves a chance to win the championship of the nine-team Gilman Invitational.

The Webster Tigers, the third-place finishers in the Lakeland West Conference, emerged as the tournament champions by knocking off Phillips 2-1 and sweeping Gilman 2-0 in the afternoon’s title bracket. Webster beat Wabeno-Laona and Butternut to get to the title bracket.

Gilman had no trouble in its early pool, beating Alma Center Lincoln 2515, 25-16 and Solon Springs 25-14, 25-12 to punch its ticket to the title bracket.

There, the Pirates first met Webster, who swept Gilman 25-17, 25-17.

Gilman, however, finished on a high note, beating a strong Phillips squad in two outstanding sets 26-24, 29-27. Webster then outlasted the Loggers 24-26, 25-17, 1614 to take home the trophy.

Weir was Gilman’s kill leader for the tournament with 27, with Tallier having 25, Mann adding 13 and Claire Drier getting 10. Weir also had 12 blocks. Chaplinski set 55 assists for the hitters. Ellie Drier was the leader in digs with 36, three more than Tallier. Chaplinski had 30 digs and five blocks. She also led Gilman with seven aces during the day. Tallier and Mann served four each.

Nearly got the upset

On Thursday, Gilman got its second chance of the season to knock off a number- one ranked team in the state and the Pirates very nearly got it done.

Unfortunately, Columbus Catholic, who surpassed Athens in the state’s Division 4 rankings last week, recovered from a 2-0 deficit and had just enough to dig out of that hole to beat the Pirates 3-2 in an outstanding match played on Gilman’s home floor.

The Pirates got themselves out of an early deficit to take game one, rode that momentum to a solid game-two win and had the lead midway through game four, but couldn’t quite finish off the Dons, who clinched the outright Eastern Cloverbelt Conference title with the win.

Game five was tied 8-8 before Columbus went on a 7-1 run to seal the deal at 15-9. Gilman finished 4-3 in league play and is part of a three-way tie for third in the final standings with Loyal and Colby.

Gilman trailed 17-8 in game one when it got a sideout on a missed serve. With Kroeplin serving, the Pirates went on a tear to turn the tide, getting a kill from Hendricks, two from Mann and then Mann and Chaplinski dove to keep balls alive on the same point, which ended with a Weir block kill that pulled Gilman within 18-16.

Weir blocked libero Izzy Hoglund’s attack and then got a tip kill to tie it at 1818. The teams then traded points up until a Courtney Sommer kill gave Columbus game point at 24-23. Keepers got a kill to tie it, an error gave Gilman set point and the Pirates didn’t waste it, getting block kill after the Pirates kept a ball alive that hit the ceiling to win it 26-24.

With the Pirates feeding off the energy provided by their digging efforts on defense, their passing was spot on and Tallier and Weir took over at the net in set two. Small serving runs by Tallier and Kroeplin got Gilman in front 6-3 and Mann hit a winner off a Columbus block to make it 7-4. The Dons tied it at 7-7, but the Pirates went on a big run with Weir serving, getting two Tallier kills and a finesse ace from Weir to go up 147. Weir’s block made it 19-11, then Claire Drier ended a mini Columbus run with a perfectly-placed crosser that was followed by a back-row kill from Tallier and a Mann kill that made it 22-14. Tallier’s kill capped the 25-16 win.

The Pirates’ play didn’t really fade after that. Columbus just got off the deck and started to fix some things in game three, which the Dons led wire to wire. The Pirates got as close as 13-10 after an off-speed kill by Tallier and a Chaplinski ace, but the leader never got under three in a 25-19 loss.

Tallier hit two winners to put Gilman up 10-7 in the fourth set and that lead grew to 14-10 on a Claire Drier kill, but Dons then went to one of their big guns in 6-1 Aaliyah Krenn and she went on a hitting spree, putting down four kills and a tip in 15-6 surge that gave Columbus a 2520 win and sent the match to a fifth game.

Gilman had leads of 3-2 and 4-3 and scored three straight points to tie it at 8-8. But Krenn got a kill and an ace and the Dons’ other big hitter, Jenna Kibbel, hit a winner into a block to give the Dons the lead for good.

Tallier’s big night included 16 kills, 22 digs and two blocks. Keepers and Weir had five blocks apiece. Weir had 11 kills, Mann had eight, Claire Drier had six and Hendricks had five. Chaplinski had 40 assists and 18 digs. Kroeplin had 15 digs and Ellie Drier had 12. Ellie Drier had three assists and Weir had two.

Abby Chaplinski 1,000 assists