GILMAN VOLLEYBALL - Close sets slip away from Gilman in losses to Greyhounds, Warriors
The Gilman Pirates were in every game, but the Loyal Greyhounds were a little better at the end of three of them and took home a 3-1 Eastern Cloverbelt Conference volleyball win Tuesday night.
The fourth set was the most frustrating for the Pirates. They seemed ready to force a fifth set when they led by as many as six points with the last time being 16-10, but Loyal went on a 15-5 run to take the set 2521 and finish off the match.
Gilman fell to 1-3 in conference play with three league matches left, while Loyal is 3-1 and tied with Colby for second place behind 4-0 Columbus Catholic.
The Pirates got off to a shaky start, falling behind 8-2 and 15-6 in the opening set. Two aces from Brynn Komanec started to swing the momentum the other way. When Norah Noonan scored with a deflection off a block, Allison Olynick served an ace and Noonan killed a Loyal overpass, they had the Greyhounds’ lead down to 16-15.
Raygen Soper got a kill to make it 2018, but the momentum slowed after that. Loyal’s Payten Wolf served two aces to offset a Kylee Copenhaver ace and Loyal closed it out at 25-20.
As the young Pirates continue to mature, head coach Janice Komanec said they’ll hopefully come up with more plays to carry the momentum all the way through and win sets like this one.
“We need a few athletes to step up and be playmakers in those situations,” Komanec said. “We have multiple players working to improve their play each day, but we need one or two that are ready and willing to make the big plays when the game is on the line.”
The Pirates did get the plays they needed in game two. Trailing 16-14, Gilman came out of a timeout and forced Loyal into some miscues and Reece Weir and Olynick teamed up for a big block to spring Gilman to a 21-17 lead. Loyal scored four straight to tie it and the Greyhounds tied it again at 22-22, but an Aubrey Mann kill, a Brynn Komanec ace and Olynick’s perfectly-place light push ended it in Gilman’s favor at 25-22.
Loyal’s key playmaker, senior Addysen Wolf, rose to the occasion from there and seemed to come up with big kill, whether it was from the outside, middle or back row the rest of the way. The Greyhounds led throughout game three. Gilman made a nice run to close within 19-16 after a Komanec kill and an Averie Olynick ace, but Loyal stopped the run and closed it out at 25-19 on a Wolf kill.
“She is an impressive player,” coach Komanec said of Wolf. “We were able to get some big blocks to start the game, but her and her setter (Laila Prior) worked so well together that they were just able to move the ball around and cause enough confusion for our defense.”
Mann got on a hot streak to get Gilman out to its game-four lead. She had four kills as part of a run that made it 12-7. Copenhaver got a big kill to cap the run pouncing on a free ball. Weir had a kill and Komanec’s tip fell for the 16-10 lead, but a missed serve, two Aaliyah Pearson kills and big block from Livia Sandelier swung the momentum and the Pirates couldn’t stop it.
Gilman, now 6-12 overall, has a good chance to rebound tonight, Thursday, at Greenwood. Next week, however, features a couple of tough matches to close out the conference season. The Pirates will visit Columbus Catholic on Tuesday and then host Colby Oct. 9 in 7:15 p.m. matches.
Warriors 3, Pirates 0
Things didn’t go according to script for the Pirates on Thursday, when they were swept in conference play by visiting Neillsville 3-0.
What was already going to be an emotional Parents’ Night for Gilman, being the first such night since the community lost Josh and Becky Mann in April, got thrown for a loop when one of the team’s top weapons, Aubrey Mann, went down with an ankle injury in prematch warm-ups. The Pirates struggled to find any footing in the first set and fell 2518.
Gilman’s performance was better after that, led by strong play at the net by Reece Weir and Allison Olynick. The Pirates, though, lost a chance to grab some serious momentum when Neillsville snuck out of game two with a 26-24 win. The Warriors got on momentum late in game three and took that 25-21.
The result left both teams at 1-2 in league play at the time.
“That’s always tough to start a match with one of your players going down,” Janice Komanec said. “We definitely have a deep bench and can pull people off, but it still is hard for any team to unexpectedly start a game that way. You want the girls to dig in and get dialed in, but they also care for one another and worry for each other so it can be hard to get everyone focused after something like that.”
The key separation point in the first game came after Gilman tied it 6-6 on an Olynick tip that got over Neillsville’s middle block. Neillsville’s Brailey Opelt hit a winner off a Gilman block, Braelyn Anding got a tip kill, Laylah Walk served an ace, Madilyn Davel got a kill through an attempted block and Mckendy Barth got another ace to open up a 14-9 lead for the Warriors. The lead got as high as seven and then eight at 23-15 following back-toback Walk aces. Weir had two kills and Aubrey Steinbach rolled an ace off the net, but it was too little, too late for the Pirates.
Three aces in four serves from Brynn Komanec gave Gilman a 12-10 lead in set two, but a 6-1 spurt turned things back in Neillsville’s favor at 16-13. Gilman’s back row made some outstanding plays leading to a Weir win at the net and then a net violation on Neillsville that tied it at 17-17. Soper, who also had a solid night at the net for Gilman, drilled a hard winner off a block to tie it at 18-18, but Neillsville scored five straight points after that.
Gilman answered with three points, but a net violation gave Neillsville set point at 24-21. Olynick’s off-speed winner, a Noonan kill through the attempted Warriors’ block and Olynick’s middle tip tied it at 24-24, but Walk got a kill and Opelt hit the corner with another to end the set.
“A win there would’ve given us a momentum swing as well as built confidence for the rest of the match,” Komanec said.
Soper got on a roll from the left side to start the third set, getting three kills. Averie Olynick also served an ace as Gilman led 8-7. Komanec’s ace later put Gilman up 11-9, but Neillsville’s 6-1 spurt turned the tide. The Warriors later went up 21-16. Two kills from Allison Olynick got the Pirates within three, then her roll a little later made it 22-20, but Gilman got no closer than that.
