Confidence under construction in Port

After being swept at home by its biggest rival last week, the Port Washington High School girls’ volleyball team got out the brooms itself during its home invite on Saturday.

Port swept all four matches to win the Pirate Invitational title.

The Pirates beat Campbellsport, 25-13, 25-8; Kenosha Tremper, 25-8, 25-12; Ozaukee, 25-6, 25-19; and University School of Milwaukee, 25-12, 25-14.

“This meant a lot to us and to our confidence, and hopefully it keeps us going,” junior Summer Wille said.

“I think it means a lot for our team and the fight that we have to keep pushing throughout the season. It shows we’re ready to play,” junior Sierra Hoeft said.

First-year coach Cathleen Flannery said once her team realizes what it can accomplish, it can reach levels it didn’t think was possible.

“They need the confidence. They believe in themselves. I don’t think they see their full potential yet, but I think this probably helped a little bit,” she said.

The tournament started around 8 a.m. Port got done just before 3 p.m., with breaks in between matches. The Pirates managed to keep their energy up for the entire day.

“I think we remember we’re all playing for each other at the end of the day, and our seniors have done so much for us. I think we’re just going to play for them and play for each other,” Hoeft said.

“You’ve kinda just gotta laugh around with your teammates,” senior Peyton Keller said. “If you make a mistake, it’s not a big deal. You’ve gotta just move on.”

“We really just rely on each other to keep that energy. We make big plays to keep us hyped,” Wille said.

Flannery highlighted the play of senior Tessa Linstroth throughout the invite.

“She was very consistent today,” Flannery said.

The Pirates’ play was a stark contrast to their home match against Grafton on Sept. 23. The Black Hawks won, 25-16, 25-15, 28-26.

Paige Proefrock had 13 kills and Grace Tilley and Addison Lempke each had seven. Brooke Vanden Berg had six. Abby Marti had four blocks. Abby Barthelemy and Khiah King each had eight digs, and Proefrock and Paige Arentz had six.

Ava Dotson had 17 assists, and Arentz had nine. Proefrock had 18 serve-receives with one error, King had 14 with no errors and Barthelemy had 13 with one.

Port, 19-9 overall and 2-1 in the Glacier Trails Conference, was to play at Kewaskum on Tuesday, Sept. 30. It plays at Hartford on Thursday, Oct. 2.

Grafton, 17-5 overall and 3-0 in the North Shore Conference, plays in an invite in Kettle Moraine on Saturday, Oct. 4, and hosts Slinger on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

Port was Ozaukee’s only loss in Saturday’s invite.

The Warriors beat Kenosha Tremper twice, 25-19, 19-25, 15-11; and 22-25, 25-7. 15-11. They beat Sheboygan South, 25-20, 17-25, 15-12.

For the tourney, Maddy Barnes had 20 kills, Adalyn Krenek had 16, Leighton Schmitz had 12 and Bianca Marini had 11. Trahern Bartels had 31 digs, Marini had 27, Helen Utecht had 20 and Kenedeigh Harness had 19. Utecht had 49 assists. Bartels had 60 serve-receives with eight errors.

“Our passing and defense was a huge factor in our 3-1 record on the day. We were able to run our offense most of the day,” coach Amy Barnes said. “Our good passing allowed our setter Helen Utecht to use all our hitters. Our serving was pretty spot on as well most of the day. We were able to put the other teams in a lot of out of system situations which allowed our defense time to get good passing.”

Ozaukee was swept by Kohler last Thursday, 27-25, 25-18, 25-23.

Ozaukee, 12-11 overall and 2-2 in the Big East Conference, was to host Cedar Grove-Belgium on Tuesday, Sept. 30. It hosts Oostburg on Tuesday, Oct. 7.

The Rockets lost at Howards Grove, 15-25, 25-22, 25-8, 25-20, on Sept. 23.

Ava Peterson had nine kills and Lauren Lueth had eight. Mia Grisolono had 13 digs. Jolie Bialzik had 14 assists and London Rulli had eight.

After playing Ozaukee, the Rockets, 11-8 overall and 2-2 in the Big East, host Sheboygan Christian on Thursday, Oct. 2.