Volleyball: Gillett drops home M&O match to Crivitz

GILLETT — Unforced errors haunted the Gillett High School volleyball team in a Marinette & Oconto Conference home loss to Crivitz on Tuesday. Crivitz came away with a 25-17, 25-14, 25-20 win.

Whether it was a miscommunication or serving, setting or attacking errors, mistakes held Gillett back when it looked like it might take control on multiple occasions.

“We just had too many unforced errors. If we would have cleaned up the passing just a little bit. We weren’t tipping to where we wanted to, we tipped right into them,” said Gillett co-coach Brooke Schaal. “Just unforced errors, we have to clean those up and we would have been able to take a set or two from Crivitz because we were there.”

After splitting the first eight points in the first set, Crivitz worked itself out to a 10-6 lead, with the last two points coming on a Gillett serving error and then a miscommunication that gifted Crivitz an ace.

Gillett senior Grace Wickman recorded a block kill before a Crivitz attack error and ace from Tiger junior Karissa Schaal brought the hosts within one.

Crivitz regained momentum after a tip kill, and took the two points that followed to create a four-point cushion again.

The Tigers whittled the deficit back down to three with senior Sophie Horsens serving and help from a kill from sophomore Naomi Anker, but the Wolverines took advantage of another Gillett to flip the momentum again.

Gillett had to call its first timeout trailing 18-13, but wasn’t able to turn things around. Crivitz built its lead up to eight and then split the rest of the points to take the first set.

The Wolverines kept the pressure on the Tigers in the second set, jumping out to a 10-4 lead.

Schaal had a handful of kills in the second set, but mistakes in between pushed Gillett further and further behind before eventually dropping the set.

“What allowed them to control and dictate those sets was great communication, and little (amount of) mistakes,” said Wickman on Crivitz. “As for our team, we let mistakes tear us down.”

“Our problem was, well talking is our biggest thing all the time, but we didn’t comprehend quick enough where the ball was going,” said Schaal, who led the team with 14 digs and 11 kills. “We don’t process that in our mind and we don’t look where their hips are when they are ready to hit and tip.”

Despite Crivitz working out to another lead in the third set, Gillett didn’t give up and found a way to fight back.

Schaal recorded most of the kills during the positive stretch of play that allowed the Tigers to tie the set at 10 and then work out to a 16-13 advantage.

“What changed in the final set was the way we communicated more and kept fighting,” said Wickman. “We tried our best to limit our mistakes so we could go toe-to-toe with Crivitz.”

But just when it looked Gillett might pull away and force a fourth set, Crivitz went on a 7-2 run to force a Gillett timeout.

The Tigers closed the deficit to one at 21-20, but the Wolverines claimed the next four points to finish off their sweep.

Sophie Horsens finished second on Gillett with five kills, while also contributing five assists and three digs. Junior Emily Umentum provided five assists and four digs, while junior Emelie Horsens and Anker had six and five digs, respectively.

“I feel like the main thing that keeps us from talking is positivity,” said Schaal. “There’s no positivity throughout the whole thing (when something goes wrong). We just need to let go of the stuff that happened in the past and just keep our heads going forward and that will help us.”

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