NEW GLARUS — Following a five-set victory over five-time defending Capitol Conference champions Waterloo, New Glarus found itself in another five-set match against Marshall on Tuesday, Sept. 5. This time, the Knights were on the wrong end at the end, falling 25-21, 19-25, 19-25, 25-15 and 15-10.
“The conference in general is a toss-up this year,” New Glarus head coach Kayla Zimmerman said. “Everybody will come on different nights ready to come and win. It’s not like it has been in the past years where Waterloo was the stand-alone team to beat every year. Every night will feel like this.”
The first set was a representation of the entire match, as the two teams were tied up eight different times with two lead changes. Lindsey Schadewalt opened the set up with a tip to the back corner. Marshall took its first lead, 4-3, with a service ace from Mollie Fitter, but New Glarus regained its lead, 7-6, with an ace from Veronica Tollakson.
With a three-point rally, putting the Knights up 15-12, Marshall took its first timeout. In that stretch, Audry Brueggemann and Tollakson recorded kills. Although the Cardinals won the first set out of the break, the Knights extended their lead to 20-15 forcing Marshall’s second timeout.
The Cardinals won the first two points on Knight errors, but New Glarus worked itself to set point with a kill from Payton Schneider on an overpass and solo block by Ellie Brenkman. Marshall held off New Glarus on three set points before a Cardinal error gave the Knights set one, 25-21.
The second set started in much the same way as the first, with the teams exchanging early points. New Glarus pulled away, 8-4, with yet another ace from Tollakson and kill on the outside from Schadewalt. Marshall cut the deficit to two points, but New Glarus responded with a three-point rally for a 15-11 lead. Schneider served up an ace and Schadewalt’s tip found the floor.
The run prompted a Marshall timeout, which proved fruitful for the Cardinals. Out of the pause, they went on a four-point run to tie the set at 15. Brenkman’s kill broke up the run, and two aces from Victoria Vandegrift padded the Knights’ lead back up to three points.
“She [Vandegrift] is a great kid,” Zimmerman said. “That is exactly what we are trying to work on — having her feel comfortable stepping behind the line. It’s a pressure situation, but she wants to do it. Kudos to her.”
Although New Glarus got one more point off a Marshall service error, the Cardinals ended the set on an eight-point run to win 25-19.
Marshall took that momentum into the third set, where the Cardinals jumped out to an early 4-1 lead with two aces from Kennedy Weisensel. New Glarus was able to tie the game at four with an ace from Emma Hendrickson, but a five-point rally from Marshall extended its lead to 9-4.
Facing early adversity, Zimmerman did not use a timeout. Instead, she trusted her team to figure it out on their own, and they did.
The Knights cut the Cardinals’ deficit to two, 11-9, capitalizing on errors. With its lead trimmed down to just one point, 14-13, Marshall responded with a 6-2 run. The final point of the rally, a block, forced Zimmerman to use her first timeout.
The Cardinals won three points out of the break, resulting in another Knight timeout. Schneider set the tone this time, coming out of the pause with a tip kill, followed by a block. An error gave Marshall set point, which New Glarus held off for two points before a wide tip ended the set in favor of Marshall, 25-19.
Down 2-1, the Knights flipped a switch. After defeating Marshall in three sets in both meetings in 2022, New Glarus knew it needed to bring maximum effort to pull out the win.
“Our team came into it thinking we were going to win in three sets,” Schneider said. “After we lost, it clicked that we needed to go. That’s why we persevered through it.”
Despite going down 6-3, New Glarus responded to tie the set at seven and take the lead on a Tollakson kill. The Knights pulled away, 15-9, with a six-point rally. Schadewalt tallied two kills in the span, including a Tollakson ace. With two more Schadewalt kills, Marshall took its second timeout trailing 17-10.
Although the Cardinals drew closer with a four-point rally, the Knights ended the fourth set on a 6-1 run. Schneider tallied two kills, while Brenkman’s attack went off Marshall blockers. The set ended in favor of New Glarus 25-15, as the intended Marshall hitter fell down.
For the second straight game, the Knights forced a winner-take-all fifth set.
“We’ve got some grit,” Zimmerman said. “We are learning that, although our rotation looks different than last year, we still have to play the same way. We still have to play all 25 points.”
Marshall jumped out to a 9-4 lead, forcing a New Glarus timeout. Of their four points, the Knights accounted for just two of them. The other two came on Cardinal errors.
Brenkman sparked a three-point run that cut Marshall’s lead to three points at 10-7. Out of a Marshall timeout, the Cardinals took four of five points, resulting in New Glarus’ second timeout. Schneider knocked down a kill, and Schadewalt found a hole in the back court with a push. Kills from Makenna Berg-Krogman and Kierstin Hoel gave Marshall the set win 15-10, and match win 3-2.
“Tonight, we made errors randomly,” Schneider said. “We had a few good runs, but would make a dumb mistake that ruined the run. That’s what stopped us the most.”
Schneider, who transitioned from libero to middle blocker/outside hitter, wracked up 13 kills, followed by Schadewalt with 12. Carrah Bainbridge dug out 35 balls, and Tollakson served up four aces. Defensively, Brenkman recorded seven blocks.
The loss puts New Glarus (2-3, 1-1 Capitol) at the middle of the pack with Waterloo (1-5, 1-1), while the win positions Marshall (6-0, 2-0) at the top of the conference with Belleville (6-2, 2-0).
