Glenwood volleyball one win from state
Glenwood had just played its worst set of the year.
Miss hits, bad rotations and uncharacteristic errors plagued the Rams.
And coach Chelsey Hirt didn’t look concerned.
Her team looked neither defeated nor downtrodden.
The Rams simply regrouped.
After an ugly set one rout that Hurt called “pretty much the worst” her team has played all season, Glenwood bounced back to win the next three sets in convincing fashion in a thrilling 11-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-16 victory to advance Glenwood to the Class 4A, Region 2 finals.
“That’s one thing you’re always going to see with this team: they won’t shake too much where they shut down,” Hirt said of her team, who is one win away from its first ever state tournament bid. “This teams gives a good fight back. Our girls come together. I don’t worry about that this with team. We just need to talk and they know that.”
The Rams looked out of sorts and out of sync in the opening set. They got down 8-2 before Hirt called a timeout to break the Warrior’s momentum and settle her team.
But Norwalk kept attacking, getting out to an early 13-4 lead. Glenwood could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way in the 25-11 Warrior win.
A small rotational tweak made a big difference for Glenwood going forward.
In the second set, Hirt swapped middle blockers Brynlee Arnold and Kennedy Jones at the net and Glenwood found its groove. The pair stretched for a combined 10 blocks and generally every Warriors’ hit just a bit harder the rest of the night.
“We wanted them on other (Warrior) hitters to make them more beneficial for us and it worked,” Hirt said.
Another complicating factor for Glenwood early was a less-than-100 percent Elle Scarborough. The Rams leading hitter for the season had a team-high 14 kills in the match but did so with a strained shoulder.
“That was a little off-putting for everybody,” Hirt said. “She did everything she could to fight through it but I think it scared everybody a little bit. To see Joslyn (Lewis) really step up – she’s such a great hitter all around – and take that pressure and not faze her and see her run with it was really nice to see.”
Lewis stepped up big for Rams. The senior recorded 12 kills of her own and her serving, which has been sterling all season, was particularly strong over the final three sets when she recorded four aces.
After mowing down the Warriors in sets two and three, the Rams got out to a 7-1 lead in the fourth and deciding set. That lead grew to 13-5 before Norwalk clawed back and rattled off four straight points to make it 13-9.
And Hirt quickly called a timeout.
The message from the coach to her team was neither strategic nor traditionally motivational.
“We let them get a run there and I wanted them to know, ‘We’re still up four. Don’t let them go more than that,’” Hirt said. “I wanted them to have a little boost by knowing they were still ahead, they’re okay. Sometimes when teams come back, teams that are ahead don’t always play that way.”
The Rams did indeed play that way to close out the match. The Warriors never got closer than five points the rest of the way.
The win sets up a regional final – the second for Glenwood in school history – against Council Bluffs Lewis Central, a winner over Harlan in the other regional semifinal. The Titans swept Glenwood 27-25, 25-12, 25-18 in the regular season and the Rams haven’t forgotten.
“I think they feel good, I think they want revenge on LC and I think LC is a very capable team and it could go either way,” Hirt said. “We’re going to have to not start against them like we did tonight and we know that. We’re hungry enough but I can’t tell you how it’s going to go but the team that wins will execute the best that night.”
The regional finals are Monday at Council Bluffs Lewis Central. First serve is set for 7 p.m.