The Gehlen Catholic volleyball team won their postseason opener on Monday night defeating South O’Brien in Paullina in straight sets.
The win came after the two met a week prior, and South O’Brien beat the Jays in four sets. It was a statement, bounce-back win for a Gehlen team that had been struggling at times throughout the year. Gehlen Catholic head coach Jesse Bohnenkamp says she and the team felt very confident heading into the match.
That confidence might have been aided by a re-addition to the rotation as well. Addi Castle had injured her shoulder a couple of weeks ago, and she made her return just in time for the start of the postseason in the match with South O’Brien. Coach Bohnenkamp says they wanted to stay conservative with her at first, but she was feeling good and wanting to make an impact.
The Gehlen serve game was great most of the night. They were not great in the sense of producing aces, but they did keep the Wolverines out of system and scrambling most of the night to get their offense going. Coach Bohnenkamp says that was a focus leading up to the match.
Throughout the match, Gehlen took some big leads with margins of nine to 10 points at times. A lot of those leads were trimmed down at points in the match including a nine-point lead in the second going completely away. Coach Bohnenkamp says her girls weathered those storms well, and it should prepare them for the next round.
Gehlen advances to play No. 15 Boyden-Hull on Wednesday night at 7:00. You can listen to the game on KLEM with coverage starting at 6:45.
