NEW GLARUS - The Glarner Knights (3-7 Capitol South) have shown improvement throughout the season.
In their last regular-season volleyball match of the year against conference foe Cambridge (2-8 Capitol South), New Glarus added some flair, grit and smiles on Senior Night.
Senior hitter Kelsey Zimmerman paced the Knights with 20 kills, while classmate Janna LeGros added nine kills herself as New Glarus won in five dramatic games, 25-22, 25-23, 24-26, 21-25, 15-9.
"We played five games with them before, so we knew it was going to be tough," head coach Elizabeth Rasmussen said.
For much of the season, inconsistencies haunted the Knights. Tuesday night was no different. The ups were high, and the lows were deep - but the roller coaster ride just happened to end happily at Culver's for ice cream.
"Before the fifth game, one of the moms said, 'If you win, I will buy you all ice cream after the game!' So the entire cheer section was begging to get ice cream," Rasmussen said.
In the first game of the night, New Glarus started off hot, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. The lead stayed the same through 12-6 and 19-13. But when up by seven points at 21-14, Cambridge found its stride and used mistakes and miscues from New Glarus in its own favor. The Blue Jays tallied six straight points to bring the game back to within one. New Glarus kept its cool and got hard spikes from Anysia Secord and Zimmerman to pick up the early 1-0 match lead.
In the second game, it was Cambridge that jumped out to an early 10-1 lead. The deficit reached 10 points at 13-3 before New Glarus came back. Over the next 14 points, Zimmerman pounded five kills with teammate Kalie French knocking in another two that saw the home squad drive its way back to being down 16-14.
The pendulum momentum didn't end there for New Glarus, as it took the lead at 18-17. Cambridge wasn't even making many mistakes - New Glarus was just running on all cylinders. Before long, the Knights led 23-19 before halting the Blue Jays at 23 points for the win.
In the third game, the two teams fought tooth and nail straight through, with the biggest lead for either side being four points. That came after a three-point streak for Cambridge to open a 16-12 lead.
New Glarus returned the favor to lead 23-19 - just two points away from a sweep. However, a missed serve and a dominating performance by sophomore Carley Jeffery of Cambridge tied up the score 24-24. Two straight miscues by the Knights ended the game.
"I think the girls felt like they had it in the bag, but they didn't," Rasmussen said.
Game four again started off the way the Blue Jays wanted it, with New Glarus being forced to call a timeout while trailing 11-4. The deficit rose to 17-8 before a mini 7-2 spurt brought the Knights back to within five before Cambridge closed it out and forced a decisive game five.
"I walked over to my other coaches and asked what I should do. 'Should I take somebody out, should I yell at them? What do I do? Should I pump them up? Nothing is working.' But it all came down to them (the players). They had to do it themselves," Rasmussen said.
In that game, the Blue Jays were surprised to see another early lead (3-1) turn into a huge hole. New Glarus got hot under the superb serving of Secord, who had two of her five aces on an eight-point run that forced Cambridge head coach Heather Becker to call two timeouts. Not long after, Secord secured the win with a hard slam on the deck.
"It's happened a few times. That fifth game, if we can get up, we just have to stay up. Even if we're up 9-3, we can lose it just as fast as we gained it," Rasmussen said. "We have such a fun team. It's hard to take it seriously when we have so much fun."
Lauren Narveson and Kaitlin Schluter combined for 42 assists (23 and 19, respectively), Kelsey Engelke had seven digs and French added five blocks and five kills on the night for New Glarus.
In their last regular-season volleyball match of the year against conference foe Cambridge (2-8 Capitol South), New Glarus added some flair, grit and smiles on Senior Night.
Senior hitter Kelsey Zimmerman paced the Knights with 20 kills, while classmate Janna LeGros added nine kills herself as New Glarus won in five dramatic games, 25-22, 25-23, 24-26, 21-25, 15-9.
"We played five games with them before, so we knew it was going to be tough," head coach Elizabeth Rasmussen said.
For much of the season, inconsistencies haunted the Knights. Tuesday night was no different. The ups were high, and the lows were deep - but the roller coaster ride just happened to end happily at Culver's for ice cream.
"Before the fifth game, one of the moms said, 'If you win, I will buy you all ice cream after the game!' So the entire cheer section was begging to get ice cream," Rasmussen said.
In the first game of the night, New Glarus started off hot, jumping out to a 6-1 lead. The lead stayed the same through 12-6 and 19-13. But when up by seven points at 21-14, Cambridge found its stride and used mistakes and miscues from New Glarus in its own favor. The Blue Jays tallied six straight points to bring the game back to within one. New Glarus kept its cool and got hard spikes from Anysia Secord and Zimmerman to pick up the early 1-0 match lead.
In the second game, it was Cambridge that jumped out to an early 10-1 lead. The deficit reached 10 points at 13-3 before New Glarus came back. Over the next 14 points, Zimmerman pounded five kills with teammate Kalie French knocking in another two that saw the home squad drive its way back to being down 16-14.
The pendulum momentum didn't end there for New Glarus, as it took the lead at 18-17. Cambridge wasn't even making many mistakes - New Glarus was just running on all cylinders. Before long, the Knights led 23-19 before halting the Blue Jays at 23 points for the win.
In the third game, the two teams fought tooth and nail straight through, with the biggest lead for either side being four points. That came after a three-point streak for Cambridge to open a 16-12 lead.
New Glarus returned the favor to lead 23-19 - just two points away from a sweep. However, a missed serve and a dominating performance by sophomore Carley Jeffery of Cambridge tied up the score 24-24. Two straight miscues by the Knights ended the game.
"I think the girls felt like they had it in the bag, but they didn't," Rasmussen said.
Game four again started off the way the Blue Jays wanted it, with New Glarus being forced to call a timeout while trailing 11-4. The deficit rose to 17-8 before a mini 7-2 spurt brought the Knights back to within five before Cambridge closed it out and forced a decisive game five.
"I walked over to my other coaches and asked what I should do. 'Should I take somebody out, should I yell at them? What do I do? Should I pump them up? Nothing is working.' But it all came down to them (the players). They had to do it themselves," Rasmussen said.
In that game, the Blue Jays were surprised to see another early lead (3-1) turn into a huge hole. New Glarus got hot under the superb serving of Secord, who had two of her five aces on an eight-point run that forced Cambridge head coach Heather Becker to call two timeouts. Not long after, Secord secured the win with a hard slam on the deck.
"It's happened a few times. That fifth game, if we can get up, we just have to stay up. Even if we're up 9-3, we can lose it just as fast as we gained it," Rasmussen said. "We have such a fun team. It's hard to take it seriously when we have so much fun."
Lauren Narveson and Kaitlin Schluter combined for 42 assists (23 and 19, respectively), Kelsey Engelke had seven digs and French added five blocks and five kills on the night for New Glarus.
