By MIKE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
In volleyball, it all begins with the serve.
While the Amherst High School girls volleyball team got off to a good start in its Central Wisconsin Conference clash with Bonduel, the Falcons had trouble hitting the ball over the net on serves in crunch time.
And after creaming the Bears 15-5 in the first game, Amherst played two very close games with Bonduel but came up on the short end of the stick both times, 16-14 and 15-12.
"We stopped ourselves," Amherst coach Gregg Jensen said. "We had key miss serves. When you have a lead and momentum, you can't give it back."
The loss dropped the Falcons from the ranks of the undefeated in the conference (3-1) while Bonduel improved to 3-1. Amherst will have its chance at revenge Saturday when the team takes on Bonduel at a CWC quadrangular in Wittenberg-Birnamwood.
Amherst jumped out to an 11-1 lead in the first game and won it on a Melissa Kayon spike. But the Bears roared back in game two and grabbed a 5-0 lead. The Falcons battled back and after a lot of back and forth play, Amherst eventually took a 14-11 advantage on another Kayon spike.
Bonduel rallied to move ahead, 15-14, and the Falcons took a timeout. After consecutive sideouts, a Bonduel spike attempt dropped just outside a diving Becca Konkol's reach and the Bears tied the match at one game apiece.
The Falcons stormed out to a 7-1 lead in the deciding game and appeared to have Bonduel on the ropes. But the Bears came back again and got within 10-9 on the serving of Amber Sumnicht, Deana Blum, Stefanie Richter and Melissa Edler. During that time, Amherst was plagued by miss-hits on serves, bumps and spikes.
Amherst made it 11-9 when a Bonduel spike attempt was hit too hard and went out of bounds. But on the ensuing play, a Bonduel volley hit the court's out-of-bounds line and the Bears took over the serve. An Amherst miscommunication allowed the Bears to tie it up at 11-11 and then Meghan Simkins' spike kill gave the Falcons a sideout.
A Bears carry put Amherst ahead again, this time at 12-11, but Bonduel got the serve back on a spike. Two more spikes and a Falcons miss hit allowed the Bears to take a 14-12 lead, which put Amherst on the ropes.
The Falcons got another chance when, after a long back and forth exchange, Bonduel's Ashley Reinke's hit landed out of bounds, giving Amherst a sideout. But the Bears regained the serve on the next play on Sumnicht's spike.
Sumnicht then finished off the Falcons herself, serving an ace to win the game and the match.
"When times got tough, we folded and we can't do that," Jensen said. "We had the match within our grasp. We definitely shot ourselves in the foot many times tonight."
Bonduel coach Dawn Scheelk was impressed with her team's back row players, was pleased to see her team come to life in games two and three.
"I didn't recognize the team that was out there the first game," Scheelk said. "I was happy to see we snapped out of it and played like I expected."
Simkins paced Amherst with six kills while Kayon added six. Jenny Orsund had 10 service points while Erin Jensen and Konkol had four assists each.
It won't get any easier for the Falcons this weekend at the Wittenberg-Birnamwood quadrangular. The Bears and the host Chargers are both in contention to end Amherst's two-year reign as conference champs.
"I told the girls this will be a tough week. Right now we put our backs against the wall so we'll see what we can do," Jensen said.