Topper VB falls to Mounders, triumphant over Wolves
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SENIOR Brandi Standaert makes a shot, while teammates Maddy Oehlke (#3) and Kassidi Thompson (#6) look on, during the Toppers’ home vollyball match against Elmwood/Plum City last Thursday. Glenwood City won its first conference match of the season. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
By Missy Klatt
Sports Correspondent
With two more conference games under their belt, the Lady Hilltoppers are still struggling to put it all together but are finally making head way including securing their first Dunn-St. Croix victory of the season.
Glenwood City traveled to conference co-leader Elk Mound last Tuesday, October 1st where they lost in three straight sets to the Mounders. Then on Thursday, the 3rd, they hosted the Elmwood/Plum City Wolves and beat the Wolves three sets to one to earn their first conference “W” of the 2019 campaign.
The Hilltoppers currently sport a 1-3 conference record while being 2-10 overall.
Elk Mound
The scores for the match against the Mounders were 17-25, 14-25 and 20-25.
According to Toppers’ head coach Nicole Miller, the girls struggled through most of the match, they struggled with their serves and serve receive passing.
On the bright side, Coach Miller said that Maddie Oehlke had some really good hits and Bella Rassbach had a few good hits as well. Miller also praised Leah Magsum’s play in the back row as well as her serving, stating that she had some aces during the match.
Miller commented that they were trying to find something that clicked and in the third set things were looking better but just not good enough to get past the skilled Mounders.
Miller remarked that the Mounders had some players that could place the ball really well.
“They found our holes and that really caught the girls off guard,” stated Miller
Elmwood/Plum City
TOPPER junior Izabella Rassbach hits a hard shot over the net and the Elmwood/Plum City defense during a Dunn-St. Croix match in Glenwood City last Thursday, October 3. The Hilltoppers won three sets to one. —photo by Shawn DeWitt
Finally, success for the Toppers as they had their first conference win in a home match against the Wolves on Thursday, October 3.
All the sets were extremely close in this exciting match with victories coming by just two points in all of the sets.
The first set got under way with both teams making mistakes.
The Toppers had the edge with a narrow lead for most of the set with the Wolves going ahead once at 10-9. They also tied things up at 19 and 20 but the Toppers were able to capitalize on the Wolves serving mistakes and come out on top 25-23.
In the second set, both teams settled down and the crowd enjoyed some good volleys and a lot of good hitting from the Lady Toppers.
The Toppers had the early lead in set two but soon found themselves behind with a string of mistakes. Down by the score 9-15, the Toppers took a timeout and slowly started to work their way back in to the game with some good digs, saves and some excellent hitting. It was back and forth till the end when Maddie Ohelke had a kill to take a 25-24 lead. Then on the next play, she got a tip kill for the Topper win, 26-24.
During this set the Toppers had at least nine kills spread out between Maddie, Makiah Schutz, Kassidi Thompson, Bella Rassbach and Yazmin Mendez.
Set three was another close one with the Toppers continuing to hit and play well but unfortunately the Toppers came out on the short end, losing 23-25.
After a couple of early ties in the fourth and final set, the Toppers held the lead until the Wolves were able to tie things up at 20-20. The Lady Toppers were struggling a little bit here to maintain control of the set but fortunately they were able to profit from the Wolves errors and came out on top with a 25-23 win and a three to one victory.
“That was intense, a very intense game” were head coach, Nicole Miller’s comments immediately following their victory.
She continued by saying that it was a fun match to watch.
Her praise for her team continued, “They really played well together tonight, they didn’t stop talking. They got flustered a little bit but they pulled it back together. That was fun to see. Bella hit the ball tonight which was great. Makiah was an animal at the net tonight so was Kass. Their blocks were great tonight, they had coverage on the hits, it was awesome.”
“Brandi Standaert and Maddie did a great job setting up the hitters. Yasmin’s reactions and her ability to come up with some great saves was fantastic. A special shout out to Makiah Schutz who has improved tremendously from the start of the season.”
This was Glenwood City’s first conference win and the atmosphere in the gym afterward was almost party like.
The Hilltoppers will play two of their three final regular season matches, all conference contests, on the road beginning last night (Tuesday, October 8) in Durand. Glenwood City then travels to Spring Valley this Thursday the 10th for a match against the Cardinals starting at 7:00pm.
The Toppers then wrap the regular season by hosting Mondovi next Tuesday, October 15.