The Hatchet volleyball team pulled off an amazing feat this year on the way to bigger goals.
The state’s fifth-ranked girls not only wrapped up an undefeated GNC 12-0 season, they never gave up a single set, amassing a 36-0 mark in the best-of-five matches.
“With the sweep of Mosinee, the girls accomplished history, a perfect conference season,” THS coach Amanda Charles said. “I’m very proud of the girls and how hard they worked to accomplish this goal they set. We wanted to be conference champions again and to do it by not dropping a set all season, shows how hard they have worked throughout this season and in the off-season. They will be in the GNC history books by being the first team to have a perfect conference season and no one can take that away from them.”
Tomahawk wrapped up that distinction with three more conference sweeps, handling Medford at home last Tuesday and dropping Antigo and Mosinee at Mosinee in Saturday’s GNC #2 Meet. THS is 36-3 overall.
The Hatchets dumped Antigo – the 6-6, fifth-place squad – 25-8, 25-11 and 25-10 in Saturday’s opener.
“The girls had clinched the conference title on Tuesday against Medford, so I told them they could have fun but we need to keep improving and not let up at all to play a complete match,” Charles said. “I think that they did just that. They were able to frustrate Antigo with aggressive serving and hitting. They could never seem to get their offense going. When we were able to put a solid block up on their big hitter, we would either slow the ball down or get a block kill. I was happy with the way the girls blocked all day, which is good to see going into the playoffs. It is an area that we want to continue to improve on.”
Production came from: Anna Nyberg (18 kills, 5 aces, 6 digs); Becca Doughty (30 assists, 2 blocks, 6 d); Alex DuPlayee (3 k, 9 d); Hanna Meyer (10 k, 4 d); Amanda Schneider (6 ac, 8 d); Emily Schneider (5 k, 4 bl); Lauren Bembinster (4 as, 4 d); and Hanna Doughty (4 k).
Mosinee – the 8-4 GNC runner-up – fell 25-12, 25-9 and 25-15 before the THS juggernaut.
“The girls served very aggressively and Mosinee had a hard time on serve receive,” Charles said. “I thought Becca did a good job of spreading the ball around to our hitters. Being unpredictable on offense helps us get ideal match-up of one-on-one blocks, which makes it easier for us to score when we attack.”
Contributing were: Nyberg (15 k, 3 bl, 12 digs); B. Doughty (3 k, 32 assists, 2 bl, 3 d); DuPlayee (6 k, 6 ac, 7 d); Meyer (4 k, 3 bl, 5 d); E. Schneider (4 k, 5 ac, 4 bl); H. Doughty (3 k, 3 bl); and Maddie Garrison (3 d).
Hosting Raiders
Tomahawk started the GNC-closing string with a 25-7, 25-17, 25-12 triumph over Medford, the 7-5 third-place team.
“The match went okay,” Charles said. “I was happy that we won, but we definitely did not play our best volleyball of the season, which is disappointing.
“We want to be getting better with each match, especially at this point in the season and I felt like the girls didn’t play clean volleyball. We had 12 aces in the match but we also had 12 errors, which means we are neutralizing ourselves.
“The first game went well, the girls came out focused and ready to play. In the second set, we had the let down. I told the girls that they needed to pick it up or they would get beat. The last set, the girls played better than the second set and I’m glad we put this match behind us and got back to playing better volleyball.”
Offerings were turned in by: B. Doughty (3 k, 3 ac, 30 as, 2 bl, 8 d): Nyberg (10 k, 5 ac, 10 d); DuPlayee (6 k, 11 d); E. Schneider (5 k, 2 ac, 3 bl, 4 d); H. Doughty (6 k, 2 bl); H. Meyer (5 k, 7 d); and A. Schneider (5 d).