Athlete of the Week: Gill leads Pierre to 5th at 'AA'

By Padraic Duffy, Journal Sports Writer

PIERRE - Pierre middle blocker Polly Gill knew her team needed her after losing its first-round match at the Class AA state volleyball tournament on Thursday. So she stepped up and delivered, helping to rally her team for wins over Rapid City Stevens and Watertown to win the consolation title.

Polly Gill (12) of Pierre saved some of her strongest serving for state tournament play last weekend. The Govs' middle blocker tallied 17 aces in two matches to lead Pierre to the concolation championship. (Dick Carlson/Inertia) Gill had two phenomenal serving games in the two wins, with 17 aces. Even more impressive, she had seven aces in a row in one game and eight in another to earn a spot on the all-tournament team. For that effort she has been named the Rapid City Journal Athlete of the Week. The recognition for all-tournament honors came as something of a surprise. "I didn't want to think about it and get disappointed," Gill said. "There are so many amazing girls out there that I didn't really think I'd get it anyway. When I heard my name announced it was a bit of a shock." "I knew we had to do something to step it up heading into the state tournament," Gill, a junior said. The first round loss to Aberdeen Central was tough, but the Governors bounced right back and a lot of that had to do with the resilience of Gill. "She's a team leader," Pierre head coach Kacy Kienholz said. "She's an emotional leader and when she gets going it kind of brings the rest of the team up." That works both ways, though.

"My teammates did such a good job of getting me pumped up and cheering for me that I really want to do well for them," Gill said. "They really help me out and that just makes me want to get another one (ace) and another one."

Gill didn't even consider herself a good server at the beginning of the year, but she fell back on a familiar method of improvement - practice.

"At the beginning of the year I wasn't very good at all," Gill admitted. "But as the year went on I just kept practicing and practicing and I got a little better every day. I was just hitting the ball as hard as I could (at the state tournament) and hoping it would go in, trying to get a little top spin on it."

Whatever she did it seemed to work quite well.

"She was just amazing there for stretches serving the ball," Kienholz said. "It was a big boost to our team having her get on a roll like that."

"I was just trying to get the ball in," Gill said. "My teammates were cheering for me so hard and I just wanted to keep hitting it in for them. Our team needed some motivation and those were just some quick, easy points for us."

Gill, who stays busy with softball, basketball and track through the rest of the year, is already looking forward to next volleyball season. She and her teammates are already looking forward to playing on their offseason Junior Olympic team, which has been together since Gill was a seventh grader.

"That's part of why we play together so well," Gill said. "We know each other from playing all summer together that we don't even have to think about what we we're doing sometimes."

Gill wants to try to play volleyball in college, after all it is something she's been doing since she was in fourth grade, and after that she'd like to go into physical therapy.

"I just want to stay around sports after I'm done playing," she explained. "I just want sports to stay a part of my life."