Wilmot comes up short against Westosha Central

By Dan Truttschel~Sports Correspondent

Year-in, year-out, the Westosha Central girls volleyball team is among the top teams, not only in the Southern Lakes Conference, but the entire state.

The Falcons are where the young Wilmot program hopes to be under the direction of new head coach Kevin Raap.

Wilmot isn’t quite there yet, but the Panthers appear to be on the right track.

Central controlled the action from start to finish last week to record a 25-6, 25-15, 25-6 Southern Lakes Conference victory.

The main difference came down to experience, Raap said.

“Central likely has as many girls (in) their varsity program that played club as our whole program has,” he said. “Club players have played in excess of 150 matches. We have varsity players with fewer than 50 matches under their belt.

“There is no way to simulate such and every play that those additional 100 matches would teach a player.”

Aside from the experience factor, the Falcons just had too many weapons for the Panthers to try and stop, Raap said.

“We barely scored enough to win one game in the three that we played,” he said. “They were taller, faster, more experienced. We just ran into a team that was better than we were.

“One thing that I saw that we can take with going forward is we are much better when we play aggressive volleyball and aren’t very good when we play safe.”

Wilmot did continue its strong serving effort, as the Panthers converted 28 of 28 attempts with six aces. Lindsey Orre and Sarah Vozel led the way with two each.

Orre also had five kills, while Shannon Johnston had nine digs.

Wilmot was back in action Tuesday night against Union Grove, followed by a road contest Thursday at Grant (Ill.). The Panthers will compete Saturday at the Janesville Craig Invitational.

Raap said he wants his team to turn the page from the Central match, but also take with it the valuable lessons it learned.

“Our goals are to shake off our last match and come back with a fire that wasn’t there last week,” he said. “We want to end the week where we are starting it, (and that’s) with a winning record.”

 


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