Volleyball: Clintonville pulls off upset over Shawano

SHAWANO — The 10th-seeded Clintonville High School volleyball team upset seventh-seeded Shawano in a Division 2 regional quarterfinal matchup on Tuesday, winning by scores of 25-12, 13-25, 25-20, 25-23.

“I think all the things we’ve been working on all season, we just really brought it together tonight. We had all the confidence in each other and in our team. This is what we’ve been working for and we knew we could do it,” said Clintonville senior Lindsy Carpenter.

It was a back-and-forth battle in the first set before Clintonville pulled ahead with senior Hannah Baird serving. Two straight aces from Baird put the Truckers up 10-5.

Shawano cut the deficit to three before Clintonville went on a 4-0 run with Carpenter serving. Some Shawano errors allowed the visitors to extend their lead before the Truckers went on a 4-0 run with Baird serving again to seal the first set.

After a rough first set, Shawano bounced back in the second set. The Hawks took the first four points of the set, with junior Rachel Reed serving and sophomore Brianna Wright tallying a couple attack kills.

Clintonville worked back to within a point before Shawano won 10 of the next 13 points, including a couple aces from sophomore Margo Gull, to go ahead 14-6.

From there, Shawano was able to ease to the set win to tie the match, with junior Avery Dreier, senior Baylie Hansen, Reed and Wright earning points, and sophomore Faith Passehl providing strong serving to finish off the set.

The third and fourth sets saw the teams trading runs and the lead, but Clintonville found a way to come out on top both times.

Clintonville went on a 5-0 run with sophomore Jordan Lehman serving in the third set to take control. After Shawano closed to within a point, the Truckers got kills from sophomore Josie Colla and Lehman to pull away and finish off the set.

“From the beginning, we had a lot of spirit and a lot of energy and we just kept telling ourselves that this was our game,” said Colla, who finished with five total kills.

“Our coach taught us that we need to whisper ‘can’t’ into our hands, put it on the ground and stomp on it. We did that and shook everything off.”

The Truckers had the early lead in the fourth set before the Hawks rallied and then pulled ahead after going on a 8-2 spurt, with Reed earning a couple points on the run.

Clintonville was able to trim the deficit to two before Shawano got a tip point from Dreier and ace from Reed to go back up four, 18-14. But the Truckers wouldn’t be denied, taking the next five points to storm ahead.

Shawano inched back ahead on a couple of Clintonville errors, but three straight kills from the Truckers finished off the match.

“We didn’t have much for substitutions and we just weren’t meshing or playing our game. We let other factors interrupt our flow,” said Shawano coach Breanna Young. “They (Clintonville) just played the better game tonight.”

“I am so proud of the way they encouraged each other,” said Clintonville coach Stephanie Pinno of her team. “If something didn’t go right, they were there encouraging, saying ‘hey, you got it next time. Hey, you’re good.’ It was a whole team effort.”

Lehman led the Truckers with nine total kills while adding four digs. Junior Autumn Steede tallied seven attack kills, while senior Emma Zwirschitz had five total kills.

Carpenter set up the team’s attackers all night, posting 20 assists. She also had four digs and served three aces.

Clintonville will travel to take on second-seeded Denmark in a regional semifinal on Thursday.

“I think it was just hard to let errors go for some people. It just kept building up, and then we got timid and that never helps anyone,” said Shawano senior Katelyn Wilber on what held the team back in the season-ending loss.

Wilber contributed 13 assists and nine digs for the Hawks, while Reed finished with 12 total kills and 13 digs.

Wright added seven attack kills and six digs, Dreier had eight total kills and Passehl contributed 11 assists.

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