Red Hawks finally snap Coulee losing skid with win over BRF

The progress made by the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau volleyball team throughout this season was evident, but there has been one bothersome hurdle they had yet to clear: ending a lengthy losing streak in conference play that dated back to 2023.

G-E-T had lost in five sets to Westby and taken a set off Arcadia, Onalaska Luther, Viroqua and Black River Falls throughout the fall, but that win remained elusive.

Last week, the Red Hawks finally got the monkey off their backs, snapping a 26-match losing streak in Coulee play with a cathartic five-set win over BRF.

“The win was incredibly satisfying,” said G-E-T head coach Marc Baures. “As a team, we know we are capable of winning matches. We’ve taken sets from high-ranked teams all year, we have just fallen short of connecting the dots to win matches. It was great for our girls to experience a conference win and know what it feels to get over that obstacle.”

G-E-T (9-18, 1-9) will try to end the regular season on a high note when it welcomes in rival Arcadia Thursday at 7 p.m. in Galesville. The playoffs get underway with the opening round on Tuesday, followed by regional semifinals on Thursday and regional final matches set for Saturday.

G-E-T 3 BRF 2

After a slew of close calls, promising performances and frustrating losses, the Red Hawks finally got over the hump to secure that conference win by beating the Tigers in five sets last Tuesday in Black River Falls.

It did not necessarily look like it’d be the night to end the streak early on, as G-E-T came out a bit flat and dropped the opening set 25-12.

But the Red Hawks rebounded well, leading throughout most of the second set and finishing it on a 6-1 run to win 25-18 and level the match. G-E-T used another 6-1 run late in the third set to turn a 17-16 lead into a 23-17 advantage and proceeded to close it out for a 25-20 win and a 2-1 lead in the match.

A 25-16 BRF win in the fourth sent the match to the all-deciding fifth. A string of five consecutive points won allowed G-E-T to build a 10-4 lead in the decider, which eventually extended to 14-5 to give the Red Hawks a boatload of match points.

The Tigers staved off three of those match points before G-E-T finally closed it out on a Laela Schmitt kill to win the set 15-8 and snap that pesky losing streak.

“We were confident in our serving which helped set the tempo for the game,” Baures said. “We got a lot of free balls back at us off of serves which allowed us to play in system throughout the match. We also played some consistent defense which led to BRF changing how they were attacking us.”

The Red Hawks were led in the victory by Rylynn Simmons with 13 kills and six aces, Taryn Leighty with 23 assists, Clara Schulze with 17 digs and Ally Burns with nine blocks.

Viroqua 3 G-E-T 0

Riding the high of that dramatic win earlier in the week, G-E-T could not replicate the experience against the Blackhawks last Thursday in Galesville.

After Viroqua won the first set 25-17, the Red Hawks put themselves in prime position to win the second and even up the match. Instead, they let a 23-17 lead slip away as the Blackhawks rallied back for a 26-24 win and a 2-0 advantage in the match.

G-E-T fell behind 17-6 in the third set and, despite a strong push to tighten things up, Viroqua closed out the set 25-20 to wrap up the match.

Leaders for the Red Hawks included Simmons with six kills, Leighty with 15 assists and three aces, Schulze with 13 digs and Claire Baures with seven blocks.

Altoona tournament

The Red Hawks went 0-3 on the day at a tournament in Altoona last Saturday, falling in two sets to host Altoona (14-25, 15-25), Unity (19-25, 22-25) and Rice Lake (17-25, 19-25).