Oconto Falls volleyball team's best efforts not enough to down Lux-Casco

The Oconto Falls High School volleyball team dropped a North Eastern Conference match to state ranked Luxemburg-Casco on Sept. 29 in Oconto Falls.

Despite being swept by scores of 25-13, 25-10, 25-22, Oconto Falls players and coaches didn’t hang their heads, and were pleased with the effort throughout the match.

“I think we played really good,” said senior Brailyn St. Louis. “I think that when we get down, we just got to pick each other up and bringing everyone up so that we don’t keep getting farther and farther down. I think in that last set that we kept on picking each other up … We kept fighting and going.”

“I think that we really did try our best,” said sophomore Amber Otto. “Even though sometimes it got hard and we were trying to adjust to things, I think we kept our heads up. I think we did really good, I think we just need to keep our heads up after that game.”

The teams traded off winning the first six points in the first set before a quick 4-0 spurt gave Lux-Casco the advantage.

After a timeout, Oconto Falls got back within one after a couple mistakes from the visitors, but a 5-1 run from the Spartans made it a five-point deficit again.

Junior Keira Cole got a tip point to stop the visitor’s run before Otto had a few kills to keep Oconto Falls in it. Lux-Casco went on a 4-0 run, and then after a St. Louis kill, a 3-0 run to finish off the first set.

The second set saw Lux-Casco score six of the first seven points and 10 of the first 13.

After a Panthers’ timeout, Otto and junior Kati Raddatz scored points around an ace from junior Morgan Moynihan to bring the hosts within four, 10-6. Lux-Casco responded with an 8-0 run to take complete control again and soon finished off the set.

After battling hard all match, Oconto Falls finally got some more positive results in set three.

The Panthers jumped out to a 4-0 lead as senior Hanna Krejcarek served. Senior Morgan Kluth delivered a kill on the run for Oconto Falls.

After a Lux-Casco block got the visitors a point, Kluth had another kill to help the hosts to a 6-1 lead, but as they had all match, the Spartans went on a run to tie things up at six.

Oconto Falls continued to lead or be tied for the next 20 points. During that span, several Panthers scored. Junior Grace Molitor, Cole, St. Louis, Kluth and Otto had kills, while Moynihan and senior Madison Uelmen served aces.

“In the beginning, we had energy, but then at the end, I think we started to pick each other up more,” said Otto of the final set. “We started to pick up on their mistakes and that made us go higher and we made our own kills and we got good plays as well on our side.”

After falling behind, Kluth and Molitor posted kills to help Oconto Falls go back ahead again. Lux-Casco grabbed the lead for good after a 3-0 run.

Otto had a couple more kills late, but eventually Lux-Casco reached 25 set points to end the match.

Otto led the Panthers with 12 attack kills on the night, with St. Louis adding four and Kluth and Molitor three each.

Moynihan tallied three of the team’s five aces and also had seven assists and seven digs. Krejcarek posted a team-leading nine assists, while junior libero Kyndra Staidl had seven assists.

Staidl had a team-high eight digs. Otto recorded six digs and Krejcarek had five.

The loss was the second conference setback of the week, after the team also fell to Fox Valley Lutheran on Sept. 27, but the Panthers weren’t in panic mode.

“Honestly, where we’re at, we’re playing good teams, our conference is pretty good,” said St. Louis. “I think that if we just keep playing the way we are and just keep trying to push each other to do better, more than what we are doing already, I think we can take it pretty far honestly.”

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