Abby volleyball continues win steak in Gilman, Phillips

The Abbotsford Falcons volleyball team extended their winning streak to four after defeating both Phillips and Gilman in their best-of-five matches over the past week. The streak has the Falcons now sitting at 8-6 on the year and the victory over the Loggers puts them at 1-0 in conference play.

Gilman, 3-0

It was all Abbotsford on Thursday night as the Falcons traveled to Gilman to take on the Pirates for a non-conference match. The visitors dominated the affair, winning the first two sets by double-digits and sweeping the hosting Pirates 3-0.

Abbotsford jumped out to a 25-14 victory over the home team in the opening set and followed with a 25-15 victory. While the Pirates managed to make the final set a little closer, the Falcons were still largely in control when all was said and done, winning 25-17.

It was a solid day both attacking at the net and serving for Abbotsford. While they ended up with nine service errors, the Falcons also racked up 14 aces over the course of the three sets, consistently putting Gilman at a disadvantage with their strong serving. The Falcons also finished with one of their more efficient hitting performances of 2025, ending the day with 33 kills and .212 hitting percentage.

Celia Schindler led the way with nine kills while Riley Podevels, Faith Sperl and Marilyn Hammock all had six kills each. Sperl was especially effective, collecting her six kills on just 10 attempts and finishing with no hitting errors.

The Abbotsford setter also came through at the service line, racking up four aces to lead the Falcons in the category. Schindler added another three while Podevels, Campbell Brodhagen and Ella Schreiber all served up two each.

Lauryn Harris was a force to be reckoned with at the net defensively on Thursday. The sophomore was part of four of the team’s five blocks, including three solo blocks. Schindler and Sperl had the most digs in the game, recording 14 and 12 respectively and Sperl ended the game with 26 assists. Caylee Clement fielded 15 serves with just one error and Podevels had 11 serve receives without an error.

Phillips, 3-1

The Falcons had to go on the road for their first conference match of the season, traveling to Phillips to take on a Loggers’ squad mired in a lengthy losing streak. Abbotsford utilized a strong defensive performance and pulled together enough points on a multi-faceted attack to defeat their conference foes in four sets.

The gritty Marawood-North battle started with Abbotsford notching an important win in the first set, edging out the Loggers 26-24. They rode the victory to another in the second, winning 25-19, but Phillips came back in the third to avoid the sweep, 25-21. The Falcons took care of business in the fourth, however, and sealed the deal with a 25-17 victory.

The Falcons averaged 22.3 digs per set in their duel with their conference foes, nearly two more than their next highest average over the first portion of the season. While Abbotsford ended the match with 41 kills, it took 148 attempts to reach that number and they had 29 hitting errors, further evidence of the defense on display by both teams. Eighteen aces for Falcons’ servers were welcomed, but 16 service errors also hurt Abbotsford at times.

Schindler, Harris and Podevels combined for 29 of the Falcons’ 41 kills to lead the Abbotsford attack. Schindler and Harris both finished with 10 each and Podevels added another nine herself.

On defense, the Falcons had four players finish in the double-digits in total digs. Schindler finished with 22 to lead the team while Clement added 19, Podevels had 14 and Sperl had 13. Clement, Schindler and Podevels also handled the Falcons’ serve receive, combining for 63 of the 68 serves received for Abbotsford.

Clement also had a solid day from the service line, delivering seven aces over the course of the match. Schindler and Sperl both had four apiece.

What’s Next?

The Falcons will jump back into action on Thursday, September 18 when they travel to Marshfield to take on the Columbus Catholic Dons for a non-conference match. The Dons, who have dominated the Cloverbelt-East conference for the past decade, are currently 13-7 in 2025. They are currently on a four-match win streak of their own, most recently sweeping a tough Stratford club in a tournament this past Saturday. The match between Abbotsford and the Dons will start at 7:15 p.m.