NEW GLARUS — When New Glarus and Belleville first met this season on Sept. 12, the contest lasted five sets. This time around, though, the Knights charged past the Wildcats in four sets on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
Although New Glarus jumped out to a 6-2 lead — highlighted by a double block from Ellie Brenkman and Ella Woodmansee — Belleville rallied with 10 straight points. Just three of those points came on Knight errors.
Lindsey Schadewalt stopped the run with a tip kill, but Belleville barged on to a 22-18 lead. Following a Knight timeout, the two teams exchanged four points. Emma Hendrickson held off the Wildcats on set point with a kill and went to the service line.
There, she began rallies that ended in tip kills for Schadewalt and Veronica Tollakson. With his team’s lead trimmed to just one point, Belleville head coach John Pamperin called a timeout. Two points and two errors later with his team now trailing 25-24, Pamperin called his second timeout.
This time, the Wildcats came out swinging, getting a kill from Sam Frey. An attack error from Tollakson gave Belleville the 26-25 edge, but she made up for it down the stretch with two service aces to take the first set 29-27.
Although Belleville jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set, New Glarus rallied for five straight points. Brenkman found a hole in the Wildcat defense with a tip, sending Carrah Bainbridge to the service line. Bainbridge’s serves kept Belleville out of system and allowed New Glarus to get into a flow. Woodmansee’s attack got through blockers and Tollakson snuck a tip over on the second ball. Schadewalt then played the angle for a tip kill and 6-4 lead.
Maddi DeSmet’s kill momentarily stalled the Knights, but NG extended its lead to 10-5 with back-to-back kills from Hendrickson. Pamperin’s subsequent timeout iced Hendrickson, as she committed two errors in a four-point stretch.
The Wildcats continued their comeback effort — tying the set at 13, 14 and 15 — before Frey’s back-to-back kills down the stretch gave Belleville the second set 25-21.
Anna Alexander’s kill to open set three, paired with aces from Frey, gave the Wildcats an early 6-2 lead. The advantage held until a double block from Brenkman and Tollakson sent Tollakson to the service line — her team trailing 14-12. She stayed there for 12 straight points, as New Glarus built up a 10-point lead.
Tollakson served up an ace early in the run and, with a kill from Schadewalt, Pamperin called his first timeout. Following an Audry Brueggemann kill and two more Tollakson aces, Pamperin called his second and final timeout of the set.
Schadewalt came out of the break, sneaking a kill through the Wildcat block. Brenkman tallied a kill from the middle, and Tollakson dished out two more aces.
Tollakson’s service run came to an end on the first set point, as the ball went into the net. The Wildcats held off the Knights for two more set points, but an attack error gave NG the decisive third set 25-17.
The two teams knotted the fourth set three times early, but a small, three-point Knight rally proved to be the difference maker. Brueggemann tallied another kill and another double block from Brenkman and Tollakson gave NG an 8-7 lead, one the Knights didn’t relinquish.
New Glarus extended its lead to 14-9 with kills from Brenkman, Schadewalt and Woodmansee, forcing the first Wildcat timeout. Although Belleville won the first two points out of the break, the Wildcats committed four straight errors — three attack errors and a mental mistake — for Pamperin to call his second timeout.
Belleville worked its way back into the set with short runs — highlighted by a block from Alexander an ace from Korynn Potter — but four straight points for New Glarus ended the set in the Knights’ favor, 25-19.
Tollakson’s roll found the floor to start the run. After a Wildcat error on a free ball, Kennedi Esser served up and ace. Just as she did in the first set, Tollakson recorded the final kill in the fourth set.
In 27 serves, Tollakson recorded seven aces. Schadewalt led the offense with 17 kills, while Bainbridge dug out 35 attacks.
New Glarus’s win, paired with Waterloo’s 3-1 loss to Marshall, created a tie for second place in the Capitol South Conference. Marshall (9-0) clinched an outright title, while the conference runner-up position is still up for grabs between New Glarus (6-3) and Marshall (6-3). The Knights conclude their conference campaign with a game against Cambridge (0-9), while the Pirates face off against Wisconsin Heights (2-7).
