The state’s third-ranked Hatchet volleyball team reached state for the third time in four seasons by knocking off Altoona and Barron in sectional matches last week.
The Golden Bears fell 25-13, 25-21, 20-25, 28-26 in New Richmond on Saturday.
“Everyone worked well together,” THS coach Amanda Kriese said. “These girls have worked so hard for this and have now accomplished another one of their goals.
“The girls played great in the first set and dominated for the most part. We were able to stay aggressive through the second set and had momentum for most of that set. In the third set, we had a huge lead and the momentum swung their way after a controversial call and Barron started chipping away at our lead.
“We did a good job of starting strong in the fourth set, but Barron kept fighting throughout. I have to give them credit because they fought point-for-point with us. My kids did an excellent job of not letting down when (Barron) had the game-point advantage and we chipped away until we had the advantage and we won on a kill shot by Anna (Nyberg).”
Coming through for THS were: Nyberg (25 kills, 2 blocks, 14 digs); Becca Doughty (50 assists, 2 bl, 3 d); Hanna Meyer (23 k, 2 ac, 2 bl, 11 d); Hannah Feest (5 ac, 12 d); Colynn Behling (6 bl, 3 d); Megan Lee (3 k, 5 d); Emily Schneider (3 k, 2 bl); Lexi Graeber (4 d).
Tuning up with Altoona
Tomahawk swept the Rails 25-21, 25-23, 25-23 in Thursday’s sectional semi-final at Medford as Nyberg reached a career milestone.
“Our match against Altoona was a fight to the finish,” Kriese said. “They are a young team, but they were very good defensively. Anna had a great game and reached her 2000th career kill which is a huge milestone. Most kids don’t reach 1000 career kills, let alone 2000.
“Our serving kept Altoona off balance at times and we were able to string enough runs of points together to stay ahead of them. We had a few mental letdowns where we weren’t playing clean volleyball, but the girls did a good job of refocusing to finish the games out.”
Putting up numbers for THS were: Nyberg (21 k, 13 d); Doughty (2 ac, 34 as, 7 d); Meyer (8 k, 3 bl, 8 d); Schneider (5 bl, 3 as); Behling (3 k, 4 bl); Feest (8 d); Megan Lee (3 k, 3 d); Graeber (5 d).
The 33-3 Hatchets face 39-11 Waupun in the D2 semi-final at the UW-GB Resch Center at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.
“We have a lot of work to do over the next week to prepare for our match against Waupun in Green Bay and we are planning on taking it one game at a time,” Kriese said.