By Joshua Staloch
Correspondent
DE PERE – Two days after dropping a tough, five-set match to conference leader Shawano Community, West De Pere picked up a Bay Conference victory on its home court Oct. 10 over New London in four sets (25-15, 28-30, 25-15, 25-10).
“I wish we were doing better in conference,” said West De Pere head coach Nicole Stegall. “We’re with every team and fighting hard – we need to finish. We kept a quick offense going tonight. We were mixing it up between the girls, and I thought our blocks were pretty solid, too.”
The Phantoms improved to 13-19 overall and 3-3 in the Bay with the win.
Big play at the net proved to be the difference for West De Pere in the opener, as the teams traded points early.
The West De Pere front, led by Elle Zimmerman (18 kills), broke an 8-8 tie and propelled the Phantoms to a 21-12 edge on the scoreboard.
West De Pere closed things out from there with tough defense, in addition to some help from New London miscues.
Game two saw the Bulldogs jump out to a 4-1 advantage, as the Phantoms found themselves make some mistakes of their own.
Things got dramatic late in the set when West De Pere’s Alivia Baumann, following a great save from Kayla Debruin, throttled a kill across the court to tie the score at 17-17.
Baumann gave the Phantoms their first lead of the game on the next point with another well-placed kill shot.
Shortly after, Madalynn Counard scored on a kill for a 21-19 West De Pere lead, followed by an ace by Baumann got the lead to three.
With the game tied at 28, a net violation by the Phantoms handed the visitors their final point for a game-two victory.
West De Pere bolted out to a 14-6 lead in set three before New London front line cut the lead in half.
But Phantoms front line, in particular, Emilie Planert and Counard, helped the home team take the third frame by 10 points – closing things out on a block by Planert.
The scoreboard was knotted at four to begin the fourth before Zimmerman rattled off four straight winners on kill shots to open up a lead the Phantoms would not relinquish the rest of the way.
“One thing we always talk to the girls about is taking control of the game,” said Phantoms assistant head coach Cassi Tseffos. “That second game, New London was building a lot of momentum. We needed a mind shift. They did that and came out and crushed it.”