Gowanda Small Town Times

[photo] Pictured is Gowanda’s Holland Browning (#4) going up for a kill against Cassadaga Valley during the Class C2 Semi-Final at Gowanda on Oct. 30. Also seen in the photo are Jillian Gernatt (#2), Tessa Kohn (#14) and Aubrie Heron (#9).

As October transitioned into November, the Fall season ended for the Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team. The team had a home Class C2 Semi-Final game on Monday, October 30 against the Cassadaga Valley Lady Cougars. As a #4 seed, Gowanda managed the home game thanks to a Lady Cougars victory over #1 seed, MST. Both the team and their fans were happy to get the extra last home appearance for the season.

The first game of the match, started out very tight with 6 tie scores, and both teams having a small lead, up to a 7-7 score. From there Gowanda made a move. Up 11-8, Ella Luther came up to serve for Gowanda. A 5-point run had Gowanda out in front 16-8 and they never looked back. Gowanda held on for a 25-15 win. Game 2 was also close to start, but only to a 3-3 tie. This time Gowanda’s big run came with Jillian Gernatt serving. The team used that to balloon an 8-5 advantage to 17-5. Shortly after that, Ella Luther served up a Gowanda run from 18-7 to 24-7. The Lady Cougars managed to add another three to their total before Gowanda locked down a 25-10 win. Gowanda got off to a 3-0 start in Game 3, but Cassadaga Valley rallied to close that to 5-4 after falling behind 5-1. In this game, Gowanda’s big run came with Tessa Kohn serving. From 9-7, the teams surged out to a 19-9 lead. From there Gowanda closed the match out 3-0 with a 25-11 win. Gowanda stats for the game are below.

Holland Browning 9 kills, 6 digs, 2 blocks
Aubrie Heron 6 kills, 1 ace, 5 digs, 1 block
Addison Kota 5 kill, 1 assist, 1 ace, 8 digs, 1 block
Lauren Kelly 5 kills, 1 dig
Corrina John 3 kills, 2 digs, 4 blocks
Elizabeth Green 2 kills
Jillian Gernatt 25 assists, 3 aces, 6 digs
Tessa Kohn 4 aces, 9 digs
Ella Luther 3 aces, 14 digs

Moving on to Wednesday, November 1, and the Class C2 Finals versus Randolph at Southwestern. Randolph is a team that Gowanda has outplayed in spurts, but still managed enough small errors to have lost to twice during the regular season. This night would be a similar story. It was Gowanda’s best effort against Randolph, but still marred by too many net fouls, hand fouls and spikes that just missed landing in bounds. Many of these likely might have been missed by the officials during regular season games, but not by the elite officials on hand for the finals. Stills, too many points that would have gone to Gowanda went the other way because of these small errors. Even the commentators for the NFHS Network stream of the game commented that the match-up was much closer that what the game scores suggested.

Gowanda got off to a slow start in Game 1 putting themselves in a 8-1 hole. They never recovered from that. While Gowanda recovered from the initial skid, they still slowly lost ground the rest of the way to a 25-13 loss. Game 2 was closer in the early going with Gowanda still just a point down at 6-7. A Randolph rally set Gowanda back 6-12. Gowanda made some small gains, but only to made a big backslides. A late Gowanda run from 10-20 to 14-20 was enough to force Randolph to call a timeout to regroup. Randolph surged again and was able to lock down a 25-15 win. Down 2 games to 0, Gowanda came out strong in Game 3. From an early 2-0 Gowanda lead, the game was tied at 2 through 8 before Randolph finally saw a lead in the game. Again it was calls made for small mistakes that kept Gowanda from breaking into a bigger lead up to that point. All in all, Gowanda mistakes and a 25-kill effort on the day from Randolph’s Eve Adams sealed Gowanda’s fate. Gowanda fell 25-15 in Game 3 giving Randolph a 3-0 match win and ending the season for the Lady Panthers. Gowanda’s final game stats are as follows.

Addison Kota 4 kills, 13 digs, 2 blocks
Holland Browning 4 kills, 1 ace, 13 digs
Lauren Kelly 4 kills, 1 dig 5 blocks
Jillian Gernatt 2 kills, 17 assists, 4 digs
Aubrie Heron 2 kills, 2 digs, 2 blocks
Elizabeth Green 2 kills
Corrina John 1 kill, 1 dig, 2 blocks
Ella Luther 23 digs
Tessa Kohn 3 digs

[photo] After the finals game, the Gowanda Volleyball team posed for a team photo with their 2nd Place awards.