Fall Creek spikers smash No. 8 Regis in Western Cloverbelt sweep

FALL CREEK - After a tough, 3-2 Western Cloverbelt Conference prep volleyball loss at Bloomer last week Tuesday, Sept. 17 by scores of 25-21, 14-25, 20-25, 25-22, 15-11, Fall Creek had some time off to regroup, reassess and reflect upon such an uneven start to the 2024 season.

Right before practice began FCHS's senior outside hitter Gracie Marten went down with a season-ending knee injury. And on top of that several FC players have been in and out of the line-up with injuries in the early part of the season forcing the team to adjust to different line-ups and sets on offense.

Uneven line-ups, uneven play. The Crickets came into Tuesday's WCC match with No. 8 ranked Eau Claire Regis at 15-11 overall, 0-1 in the league. One more loss would put them out of contention at all for the league title.

"You can't replace what Gracie has meant to us before as a player and as a leader on the floor," FC head coach Matt Prissel said. "I mean you can try to find other players to score her points and find other players to be the kind of leader on the floor for us as she was before her injury and some of our players have stepped up from time to time but it's been a work in progress and we've had to revamp a lot things, not just with her injuries but others as well."

But at least on this night the Crickets progressed well in getting am unexpected Homecoming sweep of the Ramblers 25-21, 25-17 and 25-16 in front of a big and boisterous home crowd.

Senior outside hitter Sophie Schmidgall was a big reason why. She blasted 16 kills past the Ramblers and teammates and fellow hitters, senior Anna Dougherty and junior Corinna Grossinger finished with five and four kills respectively.

"I was really, really ready to play tonight," Schmidgall said. " I mean I'm always ready to play but this one really special and I was very excited to play and really wanted to win."

FC finally caught a break (not literally) with injuries when senior setter Lauren Dallas returned to the line-up. There was some uncertainty whether she could play in the Regis match after spraining her ankle over a week ago but she was a healthy go and it made a big difference in the way the Crickets could run their offense which proved effective against the Ramblers.

"We just do so much better in a 6-2 with both our setters out there in Lauren and Ella (Solfest)," Prissel said. "It allows us to pass the ball from side-to-side, keeping the defense guessing and getting a lot of players involved. Sophie had a great game tonight for sure but we were also able to get touches to several players and that kept Regis off balance."

Dallas said she wasn't at 100 percent but knew she could make it through the contest.

"I felt good and know my what I could do and I wanted to be out there for my team," Dallas said.

Also better was FC's serving as they got 11 aces past the Ramblers' defense for easy points led by senior libero Gracie Herrem's five and senior setter Solfest's three. Prissel said the team's serving put Regis on their heels by design.

"Our strategy is 'first-to-contact'," Prissel said. "Regis is a good hitting team but we knew if we were able to serve well enough we could force to do more passing than hitting and getting them out of system and out of their offense that they like to run we would have the advantage."

Whether this win is a turning point in the Crickets' season won't be known for some time. The schedule ramps up again for FCHS as they are at Stanley-Boyd tonight, at the Cameron Invitational this Saturday and at home again to take on a competitive Cadott squad on Tuesday, Oct. 1. What they do know is they still are in contention for the WCC title with that goal in mind before regionals.

"When you're successful, if builds confidence and that's what we've been needing," Prissel said. "We worked last week with the time off we had on things like serve-receive for example but also on building our team chemistry and togetherness and it when all comes together in a win like this you don't want to lose that. You want to keep it going and hopefully we can."