By Greg Bates
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – Early on this season, Jeff Dow has been experimenting with his team’s lineup.
The Notre Dame Academy boys’ volleyball coach is trying to find the right configuration.
Three matches into the year, Dow might have discovered his answer.
Dow got to test out his altered lineup against some great competition Thursday, March 18.
Kimberly, the 2019 defending WIAA Division 1 state champion, visited Notre Dame, and the Tritons gave the Papermakers a run for their money.
Kimberly used late pushes in two sets to finish off a 3-0 victory (25-22, 25-11, 25-23).
“We did the weird lineup the first game, and the third game and we took them into the 20s, then in the second game, we put it to the normal lineup, and we got killed by 15,” Dow said.
In a normal volleyball lineup, the setter is next to the outside hitters.
In Dow’s configuration, he put his setter next to a middle, so he could have one of his outside hitters play more in the front row.
“It worked, but at the same time, there were a couple of rotations where we didn’t know exactly what we should be doing, so we need to work on that,” Dow said. “Overall, I like the way they played with it. We’ll see if we can make it work.”
Dow said he liked the effort from his upperclassmen-led, yet inexperienced, squad.
The loss dropped Notre Dame to 0-3 on the young season.
“I was proud of the guys,” Dow said. “This is the second game I’ve coached this year. I missed the first one because I was away. So, we didn’t play as I wanted last week. Tonight, we didn’t win any games, but we played well. I have no complaints with how the boys played.”
Dow said he was happy to see setter Danny Nennig play well.
The senior came out for volleyball after not playing the last two years.
“If he keeps getting better like he has, We could be good this year,” Dow said.
In the opening set, Notre Dame trailed early but pulled even at 15-15.
Kimberly scored seven of the next eight points to go up 22-16, but the Tritons responded with six of the next seven points to trim the Papermakers’ lead to 23-22.
Kimberly notched the last two points to eke out a 25-22 win.
“It’s tough beating a team like Kimberly – they’re good,” Dow said. “They were able to pull away at the end (of the first). It’s the little things like missing serves here and there. Those little things add up and (the Papermakers) don’t do lots of that.”
After playing a tight first set, Notre Dame had a letdown in the second, falling 25-11.
“We had to build ourselves back up again,” Dow said.
A block kill by Thomas Zakowski and Jacob VanOoyen gave Notre Dame an early 6-1 lead in Set 3, but Kimberly eventually went up 15-13.
The Tritons tied it 21-21, but the Papermakers buckled down and got back-to-back kills to end the match with a 25-23 victory.
Being able to stay with a state-caliber team such as Kimberly should give the Notre Dame players confidence moving forward.
“Last year, Kimberly took state, so coming in here, everybody expected us to get our butts kicked,” Dow said. “Granted, we lost all three games, but every game was competitive for the most part. That’s all I could ask of the guys.”