Gowanda Small Town Times

The Pine Valley/Gowanda girls soccer team ended their season last week with a playoff loss. For all the rest of the Gowanda-connected Fall sports teams the last week in October 2024 is playoffs week.

The Gowanda Varsity girls volleyball team was at Chautauqua Lake for a Pre-Quarter Final playoff game on Monday, October 28. Despite having several long hard fought volleys scattered throughout the match, Chautauqua Lake proved to be more that Gowanda could handle.

After taking the first point of the 1st set on a Gowanda block that went out of bounds, Chautauqua Lake built a quick 4-0 lead. Gowanda’s first point came on a Holland Browning kill shot from the right corner. That proved to the only positive offensive play of the set for Gowanda leaving them dependent on Chautauqua Lake mistakes for points. In a near perfect set, Chautauqua Lake only made 5 more errors in the set giving them a 25-6 win.

Things got better for Gowanda in the 2nd set with Gowanda showing more positive offense while Chautauqua Lake was making more errors. Again Chautauqua Lake moved into an early lead, this time peaking at 6-2. Gowanda came back to tie the set at 8-8. Things remained tight from there through a 19-all tie before Gowanda moved into a 23-20 lead. Chautauqua Lake pulled back into a tie at 23. The teams traded points taking it to 24-24. Chautauqua Lake took the next point. A Gowanda kill shot followed that seemed to land in bounds watching live, but was called out giving Chautauqua Lake a set win and 2-0 lead in the match. Re-watching that the final play later, it was a closer call that it originally seemed. It was actually too close to call from replay being less than an inch either way. It was also a set where service errors were costly for Gowanda. Of a total of 8 in the match, 5 of those came in the 2nd set.

Moving on to a third must-win set for Gowanda. It was similar to the previous set with the difference being that the Chautauqua Lake offense ramped up. After a 2nd set with no kills that landed for points, Chautauqua Lake piled up 9 of those in set 3. Before that barrage set in, Gowanda had been able to mount a 8-5 lead. Gowanda still held on with the set tied six more times starting at 8-8 and ending at 20-20. Chautauqua Lake closed out a 25-23 win winning the match 3-0.

A particularly bright light for Gowanda was Envy Cross, a 9th grader pulled up from JV for the playoff game. She contributed 5 kills, 7 blocks and 4 digs to the Gowanda effort and should prove to be a valuable asset in the coming years.

The rest of the Gowanda stats are as follows:
Holland Browning 6 kills, 19 digs, 1 block
Lauren Kelly 1 kill, 2 digs, 5 blocks
Jillian Gernatt 7 assists, 2 digs
Addison Kota 1 assist, 5 digs, 2 aces
Cadence Luther 1 block
Elizabeth Green 1 kill, 5 digs
Bella Maines 1 assist, 4 digs
Tessa Kohn 3 digs
Sydney Smith 4 digs