By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
DE PERE – The De Pere volleyball team defeated Pulaski in four sets (25-21, 21-25, 25-21, 25-17) at De Pere High School Oct. 15.
“It helps when you have multiple options with your bigs on kills,” said De Pere head coach PJ Brocker III. “We got a hold of some great shots early, and we were able to finish off Pulaski, which has improved a lot from the beginning of the season.”
De Pere (4-4 Fox River Classic Conference) forged ahead 9-6 in the first set on a kill by Anna VanWormer.
Later on, Jazz Lohman closed the set in style by ripping an off-balance kill to the open floor.
It appeared the Redbirds might take a two-set lead, as they went ahead 13-10 before the Red Raiders (2-6 FRCC) battled back.
Freshman Ashton Birr and Jocelin Feutz provided the digs and blocking to give Pulaski an 18-17 lead late in the second set.
A couple of missed serves and kills cost De Pere down the stretch, as the Red Raiders evened the match at a set apiece.
“I feel we had a bit of momentum there in the second set,” said Pulaski head coach Bethani Thibodeau. “However, De Pere has so much depth, so they could mix things up and go with more players.”
The Redbirds came out on fire in the third set, winning six of the first seven points behind the play of Kaity Coisman.
The seventh point featured the ball getting stuck on the ceiling light fixture for what seemed like an eternity.
The point was eventually won by De Pere.
Pulaski rallied to take a late lead at 21-19, but the Redbirds won the set’s final six points to take a 2-1 advantage.
De Pere jumped out to 5-0 and 7-3 leads in the fourth set, but again, Pulaski fought back to take a 14-13 lead after Danielle Larscheid set up Caitlyn Reinhard on a few knockdowns.
It would be the last lead the Red Raiders would enjoy, as De Pere finished the game on an 11-3 run to capture the match.
“This was a big win for us,” added Brocker III. “We have our seeding meeting soon, so hopefully we can take this and move forward the end of this week and into regionals on a bit of a run.”
The De Pere seniors honored were Laura Cassidy, Emma DeCleene, Jolie Hnilicka, Coisman, Mikayla Pietrek and Amber Aalsma.