The Gehlen Catholic volleyball team survived a five-set dogfight to open regional postseason action beating Woodbury Central three sets to two.
The game featured a level of play that Gehlen Catholic is not used to showing on the court. That kept Woodbury Central in the game for most of the night all the way through the fifth set. Gehlen Catholic head coach Dan Goebel says the team recognized that their performance did not meet their standard.
Because of the slow start for Gehlen Catholic, the Wildcats were able to get their footing in set two and use that to tie the match and give them some confidence. Coach Goebel says they used that to gain momentum and confidence in their passing which was very good all night.
The Jays served with an efficiency of under 90% giving away a lot of free points to the Wildcats. Coach Goebel says they had to abandon the aggressive serving strategy later in the match just to simply get a point started.
Gehlen Catholic got a big boost late from a couple of players used to junior varsity playing time. Haley Gries had to take over at libero due to Larissa Pohlen not feeling 100%. Grace Czyz came in to end the match and picked up three kills out of the final five points including the game-winning point. Coach Goebel says their play was really important to the win.
The Jays move into the quarterfinal round of the regional bracket with a 13-13 record and will face Remsen St. Mary’s in Remsen on Wednesday night. Coach Goebel says the win was a reminder that the Jays still have to keep the energy high to continue their season.
First serve between the Hawks and Jays will be at 7:00 PM on Wednesday night. KLEM Radio will broadcast the game live from the Schiltz Memorial Gym in Remsen.
