NEW GLARUS — The Knights picked up their first conference victory since 2015, besting Cambridge in a Jekyll-and-Hyde five-set match Sept. 17.
“Anything is possible, even though we hadn’t won a game in a really long time,” New Glarus senior Lola Gillaspie said. “Playing hard, we can do anything to get a win. We can beat Marshall, or take sets from Waterloo or Belleville.”
New Glarus blew a late lead in the first set, allowing the Blue Jays to run off an 8-3 run to close out the frame 25-22. After that, the Glarner Knights looked like gangbusters. The Knights rolled in the second set 25-8 and nearly duplicated themselves in the third, 25-10. Cambridge took the fourth set 25-20, but New Glarus rolled again in the fifth, winning 15-5.
Anything is possible, even though we hadn’t won a game in a really long time. Playing hard, we can do anything to get a win. We can beat Marshall, or take sets from Waterloo or Belleville.New Glarus senior Lola Gillaspie
“I think we were really flat the first set, then we got our momentum going in that second and third set, and then in that fourth set, we were like, ‘oh my gosh, we’re not used to this’ and we died down,” Gillaspie said. “Then we had to pick it right back up, and as you could see, we were really ecstatic at the end.”
The second set was even more lopsided than the end score suggests. Cambridge scored the first three points of the frame thanks to three straight returns that went out of bounds. A kill by Alexah Mellenberger and a double block from Lily Himmelmann and Grace Nommensen put New Glarus on the board. A couple of exchanged sideouts made it 6-4 Cambridge. That’s when the Knights started to find a rhythm.
“I felt like the setter’s hands were pretty easy to read. It also helped that the other team’s hitters were calling out their numbers really loud, so we could distinguish which side the ball was coming to early on,” Himmelmann said.
After a short run, New Glarus went up 9-6, but a failure to return a volley and a net violation brought the Blue Jays back to within a point. It would be the last point of the match for Cambridge. A Knights’ kill got possession back and then Gillaspie took over from the service line, serving 15-points in a row, including four aces. During the run Himmelmann and Emma Marty each came up with a couple block kills and a flustered Cambridge failed to return most volleys within the boundary of play.
I felt like the setter’s hands were pretty easy to read. It also helped that the other team’s hitters were calling out their numbers really loud, so we could distinguish which side the ball was coming to early onLily Himmelmann
“I have been on very long streaks, but probably not that long. I guess I did pretty well tonight,” Gillaspie said.
The momentum carried over into the third set, where New Glarus jumped out to a 4-0 lead and went up 12-5 after yet another Gillaspie ace, forcing a Cambridge timeout.
Gillaspie did more than just serve the ball well. Throughout the match anything she touched seemed to find no-man’s land on the opponent’s half — be it a kill, a block or a no-look dig.
“Sometimes it wasn’t on purpose and it was kind of a lucky shot, but it worked out,” Gillaspie said.
Gillaspie’s run from the service line lasted 10 serves in the third set, which gave the Knights a 20-6 lead after a quick tip from the Blue Jays changed possession. The Knights were able to close out the frame and sat just one game from the Capitol South victory.
“Our serving was fantastic. You can go on runs where one girl is serving 10-12 times in a row, there’s not much more that we can ask for,” New Glarus coach Kayla Zimmerman said. “(Gillaspie) did a great job. Her serves are not just hard, she places them well so she can mix up the serve receive on the other team. She definitely did her job tonight for us.”
The momentum from the previous two sets didn’t carry over into Game 4, and the dogfight between the two clubs continued point by point. Midway through the frame, Cambridge grabbed a hold of the momentum, going off on a 13-4 run to go up 23-14. The Knights didn’t quit. A late 5-0 run made the Blue Jays sweat, especially when Mellenberger laid out for a one-handed, finger-tip dig that kept a volley alive, with Himmelmann later in the volley sending a spike directly to the floor on the opposite side of the net. Cambridge managed to win the set 25-20, but the groundwork for momentum of the deciding fifth set was laid.
“I wasn’t (nervous), actually. I knew that if we played our game, we would be just fine,” Zimmerman said. Gillaspie, meanwhile said of the fifth set, “It’s a lot of anxiety, too.”
New Glarus opened the fifth in the same fashion as closing the second and third — the Knights wrung off a 9-0 run out of the gates, forcing the Blue Jays to use both timeouts in the stretch.
Our serving was fantastic. You can go on runs where one girl is serving 10-12 times in a row, there’s not much more that we can ask for,.New Glarus coach Kayla Zimmerman
“I think everybody felt we had a little buffer pad in there and we could do it,” Zimmerman said of the 9-0 run.
A 5-1 run ended the frame 15-5, and gave the Knights the first varsity Capitol South victory in any of the players’ tenure in the program.
Mellenberger finished with 15 kills and two blocks, while Himmelmann had 12 kills and four blocks. Marty collected two blocks and Gillaspie three. Freshman Grace Nommensen had 28 assists, Gillaspie had five aces, and Ellie Eichelkraut finished with three aces.
Perhaps Eichelkraut, a sophomore, was the one getting the strongest set of redemption. Earlier this season, Eichelkraut was serving in the fifth set against Marshall, but served short into the net, which ended the match. Eichelkraut was at the service line for the final point against Cambridge.
“This is kind of a good redemption for her,” Zimmerman said.
