Skip to content

Lady Toppers smash Bulldogs in conference volleyball showdown

By Cara L. Dempski

GLENWOOD CITY — It took until nearly the end of the regular season before the Glenwood City and Boyceville volleyball teams finally got a chance to play one another.

The October 3 matchup at Glenwood City High School was a relatively quick one, with the Lady Hilltoppers blowing past the visiting Bulldogs 25-15 in the first set before struggling through a tough second set for the 25-21 win.

The Bulldogs fought to stay in the match, but the Toppers pushed out to an eight-point lead early in the third set and went on to earn a three-set sweep of their rivals with a 25-15 victory in the third and final game.

Unfortunately, neither team could find a win in their Thursday matches as both lost to conference unbeatens. Colfax (7-0) swept Glenwood City 3-0 while Boyceville lost 3-1 to Mondovi (6-0).

Glenwood City is now 2-4 in the Dunn-St. Croix while Boyceville dropped to 1-6. The Toppers are currently 5-11 overall with the Bulldogs at 6-16. Both squads will finish out the final week of the regular season with conference matches.

Boyceville coach Keri Peterson said she would not mind getting a “do over” on the match.

“We gave up 14 points off blocking and serving errors,” she explained. “It’s hard to win games that way. We struggled as a team, and didn’t play with a lot of enthusiasm.”

Still, Peterson said she knows her team will get past the loss and head back to practice with a will to improve and take on Mondovi later in the week.

Glenwood City coach Christa Blaser said she was glad to get the win over Boyceville.

“This was a big win for us,” she said later. “Boyceville being in our region, along with Colfax, we needed a few conference wins under our belt, but a few wins over teams in our region was even more needed.”

The Toppers have learned every ball counts, according to Blaser, and when that ball is dead, it is time to focus on the next one.

The Hilltoppers had an 8-6 lead going in the first set when the Bulldogs knotting things up and then took a 9-8 lead. After fighting through a few minutes of back-and-forth scores, the GC girls’ retook a 13-11 lead.

A series of Boyceville serving errors gave the Lady Toppers a 19-13 advantage before putting the set away 25-16.

Things were a little more interesting in the second set, when Haley Wold tied the game at four with a light-as-a-feather touch to push the ball over the net and drop on the GC side. The two teams played a cat-and-mouse scoring game with the Bulldogs leading 19-18 late in the set when the Toppers capitalized on a hitting error to tie the game at 19.

Then senior Jenesa Klinger fired a kill down in the gap to retake the lead 20-19.

The Toppers kept their arms swinging, but so did the Bulldogs, dueling to a score of 23-21 when a serve that from across the gym looked to land inside the lines was actually ruled, out, giving GC the 24-21 advantage and the chance to serve for the 25-21 set point.

After that, the Lady Bulldogs seemed to lose their swing and their steam, and had difficulty with returning the ball once in motion. The result was a 25-16 loss in the final set to give Glenwood City its second conference win of the season.

Glenwood City took a 91-percent serve average from the match, and landed 23 kills as a team in three sets. Jenesa Klinger led the Hilltoppers with six, and Abby Kremer drilled in another five. Madelyn Oehlke set up 15 scoring attacks, and Jatelyn Johnson provided another six.

On the Lady Bulldogs’ side, Hannah Johnson and Taylor Grambow led the team with four kills each, and Alyx Bloom landed another three. Amber Retzloff set up eight assists, and Mariah Drury provided six.

Jaida Peterson took credit for 10 digs in the match, and scored on a pair of aces. Johnson logged six digs, and Retzloff provided two more aces.

The Hilltoppers were swept by the league-leading Vikings in Colfax Thursday, October 5 before Blaser traveled to the seeding meeting at Cumberland October 8. Glenwood City faced Elk Mound at home last night (Tuesday, October 10) before heading to Elmwood Thursday for the final conference and regular season match.

The Lady Bulldogs returned home last Thursday, October 5 to host Mondovi and fell 3-1. Boyceville, who had a bye last night, will play their final match of the regular season tomorrow (Thursday, October 12) at home against Plum City. Keri Peterson will also find out her team’s seed October 8 at Cumberland.