The Gibault Hawks volleyball team won an impressive three-game match at home against Belleville West on Thursday, improving their season record to 14-5 in the process.

After falling 26-24 in the first game, Gibault bounced back with two 25-19 games to win the match. Courtney Schutt  led the Hawks in kills with 8, and contributed 12 points and 3 aces in the winning effort.

In the final set, Gibault launched to an 8-1 lead and appeared to be ready to run away with the deciding contest. But Belleville knotted the score at 14.  Gibault notched three unanswered points to move to a 17-14 lead and managed to hold off several surges by Belleville to repeat their second set victory margin and close out the third set.

“We’ve had matches in which one or two players really performed, but tonight all of them played together the best they have all season,” Gibault coach Heather Ebert said. “We came to play and played our game.”

Other volleyball action…

Also on Thursday, the Columbia Eagles lost a tough three-game match to volleyball powerhouse Breese Central. With the loss, Columbia sits at 16-3 on the season.

Valmeyer and Waterloo each posted two-game victories on Wednesday night. Valmeyer is now 16-5 on the season, while Waterloo is now 9-6 (6-0 in the conference).

Read more in the Oct. 9 edition of the Republic-Times newspaper.