The Class 1A No. 11 Rebels won the road match 25-7, 25-18, 25-9.

“Gladbrook-Reinbeck is obviously awesome,” East Marshall coach Terri Westendorf said. “We have seen them through the summer, we play against them in the summer as well and they just continue to get better. They just have a lot to offer. They have a lot of girls that can hit the ball over and then Saari Kuehl with the power that she has is just awesome. We knew that was what we were getting into.”

In the first set, East Marshall (3-25, 0-6) and G-R were tied at 2-2 but the Rebels quickly pulled away with a 15-2 run.

The high point for East Marshall came in the second set, which saw 12 ties and 11 lead changes. At 16-all, G-R found room with 4-0 run and closed the set with another 4-0 run to secure the win.

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE - Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Saari Kuehl (4) hits over the block of East Marshall’s Clare Veren, left, and Faith Bandstra during the second set of Tuesday’s NICL West Division volleyball match in Le Grand. Kuehl led the 11th-ranked Rebels with 16 kills.

“The difference [in the second set] was the aggressiveness towards the ball,” Westendorf said. “We were aggressive to the pass, we were aggressive to the set and we were aggressive to the hit. In the first one and the third one we kind of waited for that ball to come to us. In the second game, we really went to the ball and took advantage of every opportunity that we had.”

The Rebels maintained momentum and opened the final set with an 11-6 lead and pulled away with a 5-0 run to secure the match.

“I thought our girls do a good job of quickly placing the ball,” G-R coach Paula Kelly said. “There were times in that second game that we struggled on our side of the net. Once we got in the third game we were able to do what we do on our side of the court.

“I think we lacked some focus [in the second set]. I think we kind of got complacent with what we were doing rather than trying to do the things that we do best on our side and wait for the other team to make mistakes.”

East Marshall’s Clare Veren had a team-leading seven kills to go with her three aces and two digs. Zoeie Fontanini and J.J. Westendorf each recorded nine digs with Noelia Aguilera posting five assists.

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE - East Marshall libero Zoeie Fontanini (19) makes the pass over her head during the second set of Tuesday’s NICL West Division match against Gladbrook-Reinbeck. Fontanini had nine digs in the match.

“I would have liked for my girls to get some attacks down a little bit better than what we did,” Westendorf said. “I felt like we passed up some good balls and got some good balls up. We gave ourselves some good opportunities we just didn’t put it down.”

Leading G-R was Saari Kuehl who had a team-leading 16 kills and eight digs. Kuehl, who recently posted her 1,000th career kill, explained how her team make adjustments and prepare for the postseason.

“We are just really trying push and perfect things in practice and I think that has been showing on the court,” Kuehl said. “[Coach has said] we have to keep our game quick and we have been working on a faster tempo and just doing our jobs.”

With the win against East Marshall, the Rebels (23-8, 4-2) have now won 12 of their last 14 team matches with the two losses coming against New Hampton.

“Everybody is getting hot right now,” Kelly said. “Everybody is playing with confidence and they are really starting to click. This last Saturday’s tournament was excellent. We played five great sets all the way through the whole tournament and not really a down one at all. This is just another step to get us into next week for first-round playoffs.”

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE

G-R will go on the road to play Baxter while East Marshall will also go on the road against to play GMG on Thursday.