The Merrill girls turned up the competition considerably last week, and still worked fine finishes.
The Jays tied for first in last Tuesday’s Marshfield Invite, then ranked seventh in Wednesday’s 15-team UW-Whitewater Invite.
Merrill, Wausau Newman and the host Tigers all ended up with 4-1 record in Marshfield, but the Cardinals took home the trophy after the scoring differential tiebreaker was applied.
The Bluejays dropped two out of six in Whitewater but kept the faith due to solid overall play.
“We had three matches out of 11 in two days that could have gone either way,” MHS coach Kris Krug said. “I feel that our performance was adequate at times. We are simply raw with the addition of young players to our starting rotation. Key players had moments of brilliance.
“However, inconsistency plagued us in the two-day tournament openers. I am confident in our ability to improve as the season progresses.”
Merrill opened with three wins in Marshfield, besting Ashland (21-25, 25-21, 15-12), Antigo (25-22, 25-12) and Hudson (25-21, 25-18) before dropping a close one to the Tigers (13-25, 25-21, 15-12). They beat the tourney champs Newman 20-25, 25-17, 15-11 in the finale.
Stats included: Rylee Folz (22 kills, 6 blocks, 5 digs); Katie Zelinski (21 k, 2.5 bl, 4 assists); Morgan Marnholtz (4 as., 41 d); Maddix Bonnell (6 k, 5 ac, 35 d); Ali Zamzow (3 k, 4 ac, 32 d); Morgan Wardell (13 k, 5 ac, 5 bl, 5 d); Emily Page (4 k, 19 d); Cheyanna Pyka (5 ac, 16 d); Hannah Marrier (12 k, 8 d); Anna Finnell (11 k, 7 d); Chelsey LaMonica (8 k, 3 d); Lindsey Casper (3 as, 6 d); and Brianna Grosskurth (4 d).
Tricky Whitewater
The Bluejays opened with a win over Bradford (25-13, 25-12) but fell to the Silver Final Pool with its loss to perennial power Catholic Central (25-23, 13-25, 15-6). Merrill lost in three to Waterloo (25-18, 15-25, 15-11) then swept the rest of the pool, including Lakeside Lutheran (25-22, 15-25, 15-10), Hamilton (25-8, 25-12) and Oak Creek (25-11, 25-16).
Merrill contributions included: Folz (27 k, 14 bl, 10 d); Zelinski (32 k, 4.5 bl, 5 as, 4 d); Marnholtz (7 ac, 56 d); Bonnell (10 k, 6 ac, 46 d); Page (10 k, 8 ac, 30 d); Wardall (19 k, 7 ac, 4.5 bl, 15 d); Zamzow (24 d); Pyka (3 ac, 20 d); Marrier (10 k, 5 ac, 5 d); LaMonica (10 k, 2 bl, 7 d); Casper (5 ac, 4 d); Starr Krenzke (3 k).