The Tomahawk volleyball team swept two more foes under the carpet last week to push their post-season start in the right direction.
Due to an opening round bye for the top-seeded Hatchets, those wins over #4 Lakeland and #2 seed Wittenberg secured a regional title.
“We are so proud of the effort these players have put forth thus far,” THS coach Jen Pfannerstill said. “The upperclassmen have been great leaders and have helped the younger players to understand the focus and intensity that goes into preparing and playing in the playoffs. It’s a different pressure and one that some of them haven’t felt before.
“We are just playing like we always do, taking care of our side of the net, staying aggressive to put other teams on the defensive and limiting our errors. If we do that, we put ourselves in a position to be competitive.
“They should be very proud of their regional title, the sixth in program history and the fifth in the last 11 years. They worked hard to learn and be students of the game throughout the season and their hard work is paying off for them.”
The Hatchets wrapped up that regional title by locking down Wittenberg 25-19, 25-14, 25-18 in Saturday’s home match.
“Wittenberg decided to commit block to our middles and so we made the adjustment by going outside to open up the middle,” Pfannerstill said. “Once our outsides established themselves against the one on one block, the middle became open again, and we ended the match exploiting that. We have several weapons in several positions and that makes it hard for teams to focus on any one player.”
Contributions came from several players including: Anna Sudbury (31 as, 3 d, 3 bl); Anna Nyberg (10 k, 8 d, 5 bl); Alex DuPlayee (7 k, 3 ac, 12 d); Kelsey Paramore (3 ac, 16 d); Kellan Flynn (7 k, 6 bl); Kayli Ogstad (4 k, 5 bl); Amanda Schneider (6 d); and Hanna Doughty (2 bl).
T-Bird treat
Lakeland was coming off a sweep of its own over Adams-Friendship, but that didn’t stop the Hatchets from dominating 25-15, 25-14, 25-20 in Thursday’s home match.
“I was very pleased with our aggressiveness and ability to come out focused right away,” Pfannerstill said. “The girls did a nice job of taking care of the net and our side of the court. The only time we got into trouble was when we had too many unforced errors and let Lakeland score easily.
“When we were focused and kept the ball in play on some rallies, we won those. We did a nice job of digging to kill the ball.”
Leading the way in the match were: Sudbury (4 k, 39 as, 7 d); Ogstad (12 k, 4 d); Nyberg (14 k); DuPlayee (7 k, 4 d); Flynn (10 k); Paramore (3 ac, 6 d); Doughty (3 k); and Schneider (3 d).
When teams garner success, their individuals get noticed for awards and Sudbury jumped under a big spotlight this week.
She was named the Wisconsin Player of the Week under the MaxPreps/AVCA High School Player of the Week Program.
It is a partnership between the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) and CBS MaxPreps, Inc. Each week MaxPreps and the AVCA recognize deserving student-athletes at the high school level who have demonstrated outstanding play on the court throughout the week of competition.