Gladstone volleyball swept by Negaunee on senior night

Gladstone senior Alli Larson sets the ball against Negaunee on Oct. 29, 2024 at Gladstone High School. (Adam Hinch/Daily Press)

GLADSTONE — Gladstone volleyball seniors were recognized tonight in their Senior Night game against Negaunee in which it fell 25-18, 25-18, 25-22 here Tuesday.

“It’s kind of crazy to think that I’m a senior playing my last regular season game,” Lucy DeGroot said. “It was fun. We were hoping to get the win but I feel we played well.”

The Miners took an early 7-2 lead in the third stanza with two kills by Theresa Anderson.

Moments later with the Miners leading 9-5 senior Madison Pekrul went on a five-point service run to extend the Negaunee lead to 14-5.

The Braves answered back with five of the next eight points to cut the deficit to 17-11. Gladstone went on another run trailing 21-12. The Braves ran off 10 of 12 points to pull within one at 23-22.

“It was just a good energy shift,” Braves coach Kaitlyn Hardwick said. “I just put in girls I knew had a lot of energy and we found a nice momentum run.”

The Miners scored the last two points to take the stanza.

“Gladstone is a scrappy team,” Miners coach Krista Squires said. “I saw the film on them from the Marquette game and I knew they could play and we got undisciplined with the ball and made some errors that got them back in the game.”

The Miners took an early 8-1 lead in the first set. The Miners extended the lead to 16-4 behind a pair of aces by Pekrul and a kill by Cailee Perry.

The Braves responded trailing 18-7, scoring nine of the next 12 points to cut the deficit to 21-17. That would be as close as they got as Negaunee scored four of the last five points in the frame.

The Braves were led tonight by junior Lillie Johnson with five kills and three blocks. Junior Addy Blowers had three aces and three kills and senior Claire Roeske had three blocks and a kill.

The Braves will host Escanaba in district action on Monday.