The Bluejay and Hatchet volleyball teams proved they are well-stocked to survive graduation losses with last week’s results.
Merrill lost a tiebreaker for the title of Tuesday’s Marshfield Invite, then both teams set their sights on one of the state’s premier early-season events in last weekend’s UW-Whitewater Warhawk Invite.
Despite 23 of the top teams in the state in attendance, Merrill racked up a runner-up finish, while Tomahawk flirted with more before settling for ninth.
“Right now, being 14-2, we have Renee Sladek with 207 kills and 43 solo blocks already, Aubrey Wardall has 30 solo blocks and 82 assisted blocks, Lindsay Krueger has 368 assists, Bri Piepenbrok has 339 digs, and Katie Zuelsdorff has 13 aces,” MHS coach Steph Nelson said. “So it’s been a great start to the season.
The Bluejays didn’t lose a single game while defeating Waterloo twice, Lake Mills, Waterford, LaFollette, Tomahawk, Catholic Central, Oak Creek and Lakeside Lutheran.
Milton finally took a game from the Jays in a 18-25, 25-21, 15-12 losing effort in the semifinals, setting up the title match with Brookfield East. The Spartans captured a 27-25, 25-23 finale.
“Whitewater was a good test for us,” Nelson said. “Both (Milton and Brookfield) were phenomenal and I think the biggest thing is we lost a lot of steam. Mentally, the tournament is very draining. We play six matches on Friday, then stay overnight and play five matches Saturday.
“Friday we looked well-rested, so a lot of parts of our game that we had been struggling with looked great. We blocked very well, had a beautiful serve/receive, and our offense was extremely aggressive. Saturday you could see that we were tired, because defensively we struggled a little more on serve/receive, our blocking was late, and offensively we started tipping a lot. Second place out of 23 teams is still very admirable, especially considering the teams that we played throughout; lots of Milwaukee and Madison teams!
“Renee Sladek was all-tournament, but not to take anything away from her, because she was dominant, but Katie Zuelsdorff was just as lethal with being on average 11 for 12 in attacks for attempts, Lindsay led the way with assists with on average 20+ and Bri Piepenbrok averaged around 20 digs per match.”
The very young Hatchets learned a critical lesson in closing.
“In the second pool, if we could have beat Sheboygan South in two sets instead of three (20-25, 25-21, 15-4) we would have been playing for 5th and if we would have pulled out the match against Catholic Central (25-22, 22-25, 17-15) we would have been in a three-way tie to go to the top and play for first place,” THS coach Jen Pfannerstill said. “So a few points here or there were the difference between many of the teams. The girls learned, though, that every point counts and the next time they will finish those matches.
“This was a great weekend for learning what our weaknesses and our strengths were. The girls needed to learn how to play as a team and build the team chemistry. There were moments where we were so composed and mentally strong and then there were moments when we let the opponent dictate our play. That is what the record reflects. We played some great volleyball for spurts, competed with some tough, tough teams and those spurts got longer as the tournament progressed.
“The girls really played some great defense at times against big time hitters and our offense was solid. Given the youthfulness of the starting lineup (three freshmen, two sophomores, four juniors) we were very impressed with how much improvement we saw in only one day.”
Merrill pulled out a 25-16, 26-24 win over THS. The Hatchets posted a 5-4 record. All the THS losses were close.
Anna Nyberg (106 K, 3 bl, 10 ac, 65 d) paced the Hatchet girls, and Becca Doughty (8 k, 10 ac, 175 as, 43 d), Alex DuPlayee (43 k, 3 bl, 6 ac, 53 d), Hanna Meyer (25 k, 3 bl, 6 ac, 39 d), Amanda Schneider (16 ac, 30 d), Emily Schneider (12 k, 10 bl, 11 ac, 9 d), Maddie Garrison (29 d) and Hannah Feest (14 d) provided big help.
Marshfield Invite
Merrill posted a 4-1 record in the six-team Marshfield Invite.
“Technically we were in a 3 way tie for first with Green Bay Notre Dame and Marshfield,” Nelson said. “We ended up getting second because of points. We beat Notre Dame, but when they beat Marshfield they beat them by a bigger margin than what we beat them by/lost to Marshfield by.
“We played well in all games except for our match against Antigo. For some unknown reason we just didn’t have our brains in our bodies at the time. We had four out of alignments called on us, three missed serves, and many mental lapses defensively. Renee was our kill leader with somewhere around 43 kills, Lindsay Krueger was our assist leader with somewhere around 40+, and Bri Piepenbrok led the way with around 59 digs.”