The Bluejay and Hatchet teams attended the same tourney for the second time in a young season and flip-flopped results from the UW-Whitewater Invite.

This time Tomahawk (5-1) placed second while Merrill (4-1) was third in Saturday’s D.C. Everest Invite, although they surprisingly never met on the court.

Merrill took a pool of Menomonie (25-19, 21-25, 15-8), D.C.E. (25-23, 25-20) and Catholic Central (25-16, 25-9), handled Eau Claire Memorial 25-19, 25-21 in the crossover before losing to Kimberly 25-21, 25-15 in the semi-finals. 

Tomahawk dropped Wausau East (19-25, 25-13, 15-10), Kimberly (25-15, 25-18) and Memorial (25-14, 24-26, 15-7) in pool play, took care of Menomonie (25-15, 25-13) and Everest (25-16, 25-17) to get to the finals before falling to Kimberly 25-13, 18-25, 12-15 in the championship match.

“We were in a tough pool and had to play consistently each match to win,” THS coach Amanda Charles said. “We let down a few times but would bounce back to win the match. 

“It was really hot in the gym today. The girls seemed to run out of gas in the last match of the day against Kimberly and almost seemed to give up. In the final set, Kimberly had momentum and each time we got the ball back, we would make a mistake right away to give them the ball. We took a time-out at 9-2 and the girls chipped away points and went on a run but we could only get within two points of them at 10-12, but alas they put the match away. The girls didn’t give up when they were down which says a lot about their character. 

“I’m disappointed we couldn’t leave as champs but am happy to have experienced a tournament this tough at this point in the season.”

MHS coach Kris Albrecht stated. “We found a line-up where we were really clicking. Our passing was better than Thursday. All-around everybody played better on Saturday. We had a lot of serving errors again. That’s something we need to work on. Lauren (Hojan) is really our most consistent hitter right now.” 

Merrill’s Hojan and Tomahawk’s Nyberg were selected to the six-person All-tournament team.

Merrill offerings were turned in by: Hojan (25 kills, 7 assists, 6 blocks, 4 digs); Reegan Byer (6k, 6 ac, 35 as, 13 d); Katie Zuelsdorff (12 k, 7 ac, 2 bl, 37 d); Emily Page (3 k, 20 as, 23 d); Morgan Marnholtz (49 d); Aubrey Wardall (9 k, 3 ac, 9 bl, 6 d); Ali Zamzow (25 d); Anna Finnell (14 k, 2 bl, 7 d); Rylee Folz (11 k, 3 bl, 6 d); and Hannah Marrier (5 k, 9 d).

Tomahawk production came from: Anna Nyberg (52 k, 6 ac, 7 bl, 36 d); Becca Doughty (6 k, 6 ac, 7 bl, 13 d, 103 as); Alex DuPlayee (33 k, 7 ac, 39 d); Hanna Meyer (27 k, 3 ac, 5 bl, 25 d); Amanda Schneider (9 ac, 18 d); Hanna Doughty (19 k, 12 bl); Emily Schneider (11 k, 10 ac, 6 bl, 3 d); Maddie Garrison (17 d).

Panther bite

The Bluejays were surprisingly swept in their Valley opener at SPASH on Thursday, in 25-18, 25-19, 25-15 fashion.

“We were so flat in practice Wednesday,” Albrecht said. “They have some big girls and we just could not put up a block. I have big girls, too. We should be putting up a wall.

“We just couldn’t get our offensive spark going tonight. We started out flat and couldn’t recover.”

Profferings came from: Zuelsdorff (3 k, 14 d); Page (7 as, 8 d); Marnholtz (12 d); Byer (4 as, 7 d); Hojan (5 k, 5 as); Zamzow (9 d); Finnell (8 k); and Folz (2 bl).

Four-way win

The Hatchets swept Clintonville (25-13, 25-8) and D.C. Everest (25-12, 25-10) in last Tuesday’s quad meet. 

The girls were determined to win the quad,” Charles said. “Amanda Schneider served 19 of the 25 points in the second (Everest) game. The girls did a good job of serving tough against Clintonville. They were never able to get their offense going because of that.”

Contributions came from: Nyberg (24 k, 6 d); B. Doughty (3 k, 36 as); DuPlayee (6 k, 4 ac, 10 d); Meyer (7 k, 8 d); A. Schneider (7 ac, 4 d); E. Schneider (6 k, 2 bl); and H. Doughty (7 k).

GNC jump

Tomahawk bumped off Medford 25-1, 25-9, 25-23 to open GNC play on Thursday. 

“We did a good job of starting really strong,” Charles said. “We jumped out and took game one by serving aggressively and forced them to make mistakes. Amanda Schneider served for 24 points in that game! The second game the girls stayed focused and put the game away fairly easily. We lost focus toward the end of the (third) game and let them sneak back in. I have to give credit to Medford because they didn’t give up. 

“Overall though, I thought the girls did a good job of taking care of business tonight.”

Contributions came from: Nyberg (16 k, 2 ac, 9 d); B. Doughty (4 k, 30 as, 8 d); DuPlayee (4 k, 8 d): A. Schneider (6 ac, 6 d); H. Doughty (3 bl); Meyer (6 k, 2 ac, 4 bl, 8 d); E. Schneider (3 k).