GC volleyball sweeps Spring Valley to earn first conference win in three years

By Cara L. Dempski

SPRING VALLEY — You could definitely see Glenwood City head volleyball coach Christa Blaser’s excitement in her response to queries about how the Lady Hilltoppers fared at Spring Valley last Thursday.

Her emailed response was two sentences, written entirely in capital letters, and featured at least six exclamation points, because the Toppers scraped their way past the Lady Cardinals to pull off a three-set sweep over Spring Valley September 14 to earn GC’s first Dunn-St. Croix match victory in nearly three years.

The Toppers last conference win was September 25, 2014 when they defeated Elmwood 3-1. Until last Thursday’s road win, Glenwood City had lost  20 straight conference matches and suffered through back-to-back winless seasons the past two years.

But the long drought came to an end with the victory against the Cardinals and it moved the Hilltoppers to 4-7 overall mark, puts them at 1-0 in the Dunn-St. Croix.

Glenwood City put together 25-21 wins in the first and second sets before putting away the Birds with a 25-22 fight to the finish in the third.

“The girls came out of the gate strong last night and were able to maintain the lead through all three games,” Blaser said. “It was a fun night, they played smart ball and were still able to dominate on the net and execute the defense.”

Blaser also noted the win was good for the Lady Toppers mentally, and it was great to see the team perform the way she knows it can.

Jatelyn Johnson and Delaney Quinn were Glenwood City’s top servers of the night, helping the team to a 93-percent serving average. The team fired 26 kills overall, with Jenesa Klinger leading the pack with eight, Quinn recording seven, and Abby Kremer, Michaela Nyhus and Maddy Oehlke snagging block kills.

Mariah Voeltz turned away multiple Cardinal attacks to log 13 digs on the night, and Oehlke and Johnson split 23 assists, with Oehlke credited with 11 and Johnson with 12.

The Glenwood City ladies’ hosted Mondovi September 19, and will not hit the court again until welcoming Plum City to town September 26.