The Central Falcons boys volleyball team played their best volleyball of the year against the Middleton Cardinals on Tuesday night in Paddock Lake. In front of their largest fan support this year, the Falcons started off very slow, going down 17-11 to the Cardinals, when Coach Wayne Schultz called a timeout to settle his troops. After a sideout, Central’s Nick Manning went on a service run that pulled the Falcons out to a lead. The game was back and forth until Centrals’ Andrew Thoss had a scramble kill from the back row that just cleared the net and the Cardinals didn’t return the ball, putting the Falcons up 21-20. Then Sophomore Jake Stetson did the rest serving out the first set winning 25-23. The second set was all Falcons, after starting down 2-0, they went on to win with a huge contribution from Sophomore Regan Hess off the bench to play middle, to help offset the height of Middleton. Hess had a couple of big blocks and kills in the second set, with Central winning 25-15. The third was more Falcons, with Junior Mike Michelau setting the tone with a number of large kills that the Cardinals couldn’t get a hand on, and his jump serve was on tonight getting a number of aces. The Falcons also got great play from their leader on offense Senior setter Dayton Erickson, hustling after tough passes to set up kills by Sophomore Caleb Mobile playing despite torn ligaments in his right hand. The Falcons won the match 25-18.
Said Coach Wayne Schultz:
We were a little rusty and made a lot of mistakes at first but Nick Manning went on a nice serving run to get us back in the game and Jake Stetson won it with an ace.
Leaders
- Kills: Mike Michelau 21,Nick Manning 10, Caleb Mobile 6
- Assists: Dayton Erickson 30
- Digs : Mike Michelau 17,Brooks Gahart 6, Nick Manning 6
- Aces: Nick Manning 4, Dayton Erickson 3
- Blocks Regan Hess 2
Next up for Central is the Sectional final against either Burlington or Mukwanago at a site to be determined.
