The Wisner-Pilger Volleyball Team lost 3-1 at home to North Bend Central Tuesday night.
The Gators dropped set one 25-14 and set two 25-15 before taking set three 25-20. The Tigers won set four 25-23.
SET #1: This set was dominated by NBC. Errant passes led to miscues on setting, which led to an offense that was error prone and safe. 11 unearned points were given to the Tigers, and that was the score separation. The team fell behind early trailing 3-8, before Rachel aggressively served for 5 points which tied the score at 8’s. Emily (Hatterman) also served for a run early in this set. She served 4 more tying the score again at 12’s Lindsey Kneifl serves for a pair and WP is leading their only time in this set 14-13. Then everything fell apart as WP gives up the largest serving run of the year. 11 straight… Wisner Pilger losing 14-25.
SET #2: Throughout the first six servers of this set, the only Gator who was able to string some points together was Rachel (Otten), who served 5 points, including 3 aces. At that time the Gators pulled to within 2…being down 11-13. The Gators' serve receive collapsed giving up a run of 7 points and back to back 4 point runs. Side out points were the only points the team was able to muster. Losing 15-25.
SET #3: In this set, the energy of the team increased. The girls earned a match high 14 points in this set on 8 kills, 4 aces, and 2 blocks. Holding NBC to only earning 6 points. But the team was still error prone, giving 11 free points to the tigers. Adi (Meyer) had the first 3-point serving run, making the score 5-1 advantage Gators. Emily then had a 6-point serving run, including 3 aces…pushing the score to a gator lead of 13-4. Aspin (Waterman) then served for 3 pushing the lead to 16-11. Rachel Otten was able to finish for the win serving for 4 points, assisted by 2 kills by Aspin.
SET #4: The score was tied often early, After 6 rotations the gators held a slight margin of 8-7. NBC then rolled off 5 in a row, earning 3 points and helped by 2 attack errors by the gators. Gators now down 8-12. NBC’s offense became stronger and they were able to extend the lead to 17-10. Adi meyer then served the team to within 1 point 16-17. She served an ace and Jordan earned 4 of them on kills. Gators give up a 4-point run, being down 16-22. Jordan (Wegner) served an ace and then was assisted by TIGER errors…score is now 19-22. The team sides out again on a NBC serving error. Score is now 21-23. Emily scores 2 on a ball handling error by NBC and a kill by Aspin. Score is now 23-23. NBC gets the side out with a KILL, and then wins the set on match point given to NBC on a referee’s ball handling decision.
Head Coach Jean Groth says her team started slow once again. "The first two sets were so disappointing for the team as it seemed a continuation of the style of play they were a part of last week against West Point. Unaggressive and error prone. The uptake on the night was the reversal of everything in the second two sets. Our defense picked up, our passing became more precise, and our team earned 30 of their 44 points in the final two sets."
"The Gators earned points on 28 kills this evening, but gave up 27 attack errors to all but nullify those efforts. The team hit a very dismal .009. Jordan scored on 12 kills, hitting .219. She also earned 3 points on blocks and a point on a service ace. Earning 16 points. Emily led the offense with 21 assists, and Reagan Scholting led the defense with 13 digs," Groth said.
"NBC earned points on 33 kills (compared to our 28) and the had 8 stuff blocks. Both teams had 11 ace serves. The biggest difference being the points the Gators gave up on attack errors, serving errors, and net errors on the block. The team will continue work on improving their serve receive, in an effort to boost their offensive kill percentage," Groth said.
Wisner-Pilger (5-3) takes on Stanton and Pender at the Pender (3-6) Triangular Tuesday night.
The Mustangs swept Norfolk Catholic and Boone Central/Newman Grove 2-0 at their home Triangular Thursday night while the Pendragons lost 3-0 at Wakefield-Allen Thursday night.
The Gators should be able to beat Pender, but Stanton will be really tough.
And I wouldn't even say that a win over the Pendragons is a sure thing given Pender's improvement and Wisner-Pilger's struggles.
The Gators played some uncharacteristic Volleyball in their losses to North Bend Central and West Point-Beemer.
Take nothing away from those two teams, but Wisner-Pilger can play better than they did there's no doubt about that.
The Gators have to step up their game and play hard and be aggressive Tuesday night.
Even if Wisner-Pilger can just take a set from the Mustangs or make both sets close I think that would be a good moral victory.
With that said, I'm sure the Gators aren't into moral victories right now.
I'm sure Wisner-Pilger would much rather pick up an actual win that a "feel good" loss.
The Gators are an experienced veteran team, and shouldn't be struggling like this quite honestly.
The good news for Wisner-Pilger is they will have had an entire week to figure things out and get back on track.
Extra time off didn't help the Gators out a whole lot heading into the North Bend Central match, but perhaps a week off will help Wisner-Pilger this time around.
Whatever it is the Gators have to shake off the funk they are playing with and have right now.
Wisner-Pilger has to go out there and play at a higher level than they have been there's no other way to say it.
The Gators have to play better....there's no excuse. This team is too good to be underperfoming.
All it takes is a good set or a good match to get back on track too. It just takes a spark to get things headed back in the right direction.
Wisner-Pilger played great out of the gates to start the season, now the Gators just have to get back to that.
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