Lena outlasts Gillett in conference volleyball battle

A Marinette & Oconto Conference volleyball match between Gillett and Lena on Aug. 30 in Gillett had all the makings of an epic battle right from the first point.

The match turned into just that, with Lena emerging with a 26-24, 17-25, 25-16, 24-26, 15-12 win.

After the two conference foes split the first 22 points of the match, Gillett pulled ahead 17-12 with Halle Fisher scoring a couple points as Madison VanHaren served.

Lena slowly crept back and tied it at 22 on a kill from Natalie McNurlen, only for Gillett’s Hailey Elsner to post back-to-back kills to put the hosts within a point of taking the set. The visiting Wildcats got two straight kills to tie it before two Gillett attacks went long, helping Lena steal the set.

The comeback in set one turned out to be big for Lena, as Gillett controlled set two.

The Tigers scored the first five points, with Mia Soper and Fisher each scoring for the team as Grace Baer served.

Despite some fight from Lena, Gillett eventually worked the lead up to nine. Much like set one, the Wildcats made a late surge to get back in it, but some strong serves from Reece Franti helped the Tigers end the set on a 4-0 run.

Just when it looked like Gillett had taken over, Lena found another gear.

“As soon as we started hitting and we were on, the energy is up and everybody is talking,” said McNurlen, who led Lena with 16 attack kills. “It’s a lot more fun to play the game when everybody is having fun.”

Gillett tallied the first three points in set three and five of the first six points before Lena took over. With Claire Brooks serving and McNurlen scoring several times, the Wildcats rattled off nine straight points to go up 10-5.

The Tigers got within three points on a couple of occasions, but the Wildcats scored the final six points of the set to pull away. Brooks was again serving and tallied a few of her match-high 10 aces on the big run.

“We talked more. We had more energy, and I think everyone picked it up because we were down and we knew we had to get up,” said Lena’s Alabama Lambert, on the team’s more consistent play in the last few sets.

Set four was another back-and-forth slugfest between the teams. The teams were within a point or two for most of the set until Peyton Dorow served a couple aces to put Lena up 19-16. After a timeout, Gillett won the next four points as Fisher served.

The teams traded points over the next couple serves. Lena led 23-21 before Gillett pulled ahead 24-23. A serving error tied the match, but an error from Lena followed by an ace from Cilena Guns gave Gillett the set win and tied the match.

For the first time all match, Lena was the team that pulled ahead early, which is especially huge in a 15-point fifth set. A trio of Gillett errors put Lena up 7-4 and eventually forced a timeout from the hosts when it was a 9-6 Lena lead.

Points from Brooks and Dorow put Lena ahead 13-8 but, fittingly for the way the rest of the match went, Gillett worked back into things. A point from Soper, ace from Fisher and Lena error brought the Tigers within a point, 13-12.

Lena was finally able to finish off the marathon match with a kill from Brooks and well-placed tip from McNurlen for the final point.

“We’ve doing a really good job of backing each other up. We got our tips, we got our sets, and we need to keep on serving,” said McNurlen, who added communication is atop Lena’s things to improve on.

Behind McNurlen’s big match, Dorow finished with seven attack kills for the Wildcats. Makynna Herald set up the team’s hitters, posting 26 assists. Lambert contributed six digs.

Fisher attributed Gillett’s up-and-down play in the match to not communicating well.

“It all depends on our communication,” said Fisher, who tallied 12 kills and 10 digs. “Some days we get down on ourselves, and then we stop talking. It’s all about talking; we’ve got to get better with communication.”

Fisher believes the team can still look at the match as a positive despite the loss.

“We fought hard. We had good hits. We had good digs and stuff. We just got to figure out how to finish the sets,” she said.

Elsner contributed nine kills for Gillett, while Guns had 11 digs, five kills and three aces. VanHaren had 18 digs, while Franti had 14. Baer and Soper tallied seven digs each, and Bella Matczak served a team-high six aces.

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