Port boys’ volleyball team hangs with conference-leader Hartford

The Port Washington High School boys’ volleyball team could play with talented Hartford at home on Sept. 16, but the Pirates saw a team that was just a few points better when it needed to be.

Port lost, 25-15, 25-21, 25-18.

Will Theisen had nine kills. Sawyer Lorier had seven. Mark Krueger had 17 digs. Gabe Jerome had 13 assists and Cooper Giese had 12.

Port only had three errors on 56 serves.

“They’re a really good team. We’ve just got to play together and stay strong together through adversity,” Krueger said.

“When we get down, we’ve got to keep the energy up and keep going.”

Coach Doug Niemeyer said, “They’re a great team. We just didn’t play our best. We couldn’t block. When we played them in their tournament, we blocked them a lot better.

“We were still competitive. We can play better than that.”

Hartford regularly got into its offense, which led to fireball kills that Port struggled to handle.

“We had some good digs. We served the ball decent,” Niemeyer said. “It’s just a matter of making sure that we stay aggressive. We have that confidence in ourselves. We can compete with teams like that.”

He praised reserve Logan Snieg for coming off the bench and scoring a block.

“He took advantage of his opportunity,” Niemeyer said.

Port went 2-2 and took fourth in the Kenosha Tremper Invite on Saturday. Port swept Martin Luther and Waterford, lost, 2-1, to Racine Case and was swept by tourney champ Westosha Central.

“We had solid stats all around, but we let things slip due to some untimely unforced errors and missed serves at the wrong time,” Niemeyer said.

Theisen had 36 kills on the day. Cooper Celmo had 28. Lorier had 27 and Jerome had 18. Lorier had six aces. Krueger had 34 digs and Theisen had 20. Jerome had 65 assists and Cooper Giese had 38. Lorier had 11 blocks and Sam Kiss had 10.

Port, 10-5 overall and 2-1 in the North Shore Conference, was to play at Cedarburg on Wednesday, Sept. 23, and will host Homestead on Monday, Sept. 28.