Gresham volleyball team claims regional title before sectional semi loss

Menominee Indian eliminated in regional semifinal match
By: 
Morgan Rode
Sports Editor

The Gresham Community High School volleyball team claimed an alternate fall season Division 2 regional title before being eliminated in a sectional semifinal match in the postseason.

Top-seeded Gresham took on fourth-seeded Elcho in a regional semifinal on April 10 in Gresham. The Wildcats had little trouble on their way to a 25-10, 25-7, 25-14 sweep.

Valarie Cerveny finished with 18 service points, while Hannah Cerveny had 15 service points and 19 assists. Chloe Bohl had 14 kills for the Wildcats, and Makayla Belongia added eight kills.

Gresham had to work much harder later that evening in the regional title match against second-seeded Tigerton.

Tigerton seized control of the first set early on and went on to win the set 25-17. But Gresham didn’t panic, even after getting down again in the second set.

The Wildcats used big runs in the second and third sets before rallying to another set win in the fourth. Gresham won the final three sets by scores of 25-17, 25-16, 25-20 in an gym buzzing with energy and excitement.

“We’re all really grateful to be able to have the opportunity to play this year, and Mr. (Tim) Wild always talks about how we worked all year for the end of the season and we really need to put all our effort into it, and I think we really did that tonight,” said Valarie Cerveny.

“It’s really fun,” said Bohl. “My whole team, almost all of us are actually cousins and family, so we all just click together. Everybody is like family. We’ve never not gotten along, we always work together and that’s what makes our team different from others because we we’re very, very close. In volleyball, out of volleyball, whenever.”

Valarie Cerveny totaled 19 kills and 11 service points for the Wildcats in the regional title, while Bohl added eight kills. Hannah Cerveny contributed 25 assists and 16 digs, while Kalayla Tucker had 16 digs.

Josie Cerveny and Maddie Haffner had 12 service points each for Gresham.

The win sent the Wildcats to Elcho High School on April 13 for a sectional semifinal against Algoma. Gresham picked up the No. 2 seed in the sectional pod, while Algoma was the No. 3 seed.

Algoma came away with a four-set win, by scores of 25-20, 25-19, 21-25, 25-6.

The first couple sets were back-and-forth battles between the two teams.

Gresham was able to build a six-point advantage in the opening set and led 16-10 before Algoma used a 8-0 run to surge ahead. Algoma ended the opening set on a 15-4 run.

“We got off to a good start in the first set. We had a really nice lead and then partway through that set, we just kind of lost momentum,” said coach Wild. “It seemed like from that point on the rest of the night, we couldn’t get a run going where we could get a little bit of a lead or dig into a deficit.”

“They (Algoma) were consistent all night, both offensively and defensively.”

Algoma had the lead for almost the entire second set, thwarting off any big Gresham runs and limiting its own errors along the way.

Down 2-0 in the match, Gresham continued to battle and built up a five-point lead in the third set before Algoma rallied to tie it up. But the Wildcats were able to create another five-point cushion and this time held off Algoma.

The fourth set started with the teams splitting the first six points before Algoma rattled off eight straight to grab a commanding lead. Algoma then used a 12-0 run to seal up its win.

After the match concluded, Wild thanked seniors Addison Boucher and Belongia, noting their leadership and importance to the team’s success over the past few seasons.

Valarie Cerveny led the team with 14 kills, while Bohl had nine. Belongia added 20 digs and seven kills.

Hannah Cerveny finished the match with 22 assists and 13 digs, and Haffner tallied 13 digs.

Kewaunee Regional

Menominee Indian played at Kewaunee High School for its Division 2 regional pod.

The third-seeded Eagles were swept by second-seeded Oneida Nation in a regional semifinal matchup on April 10.

Fourth-seeded Algoma ended up winning the regional title in that pod.

sports@newmedia-wi.com