It must have infuriated the THS girls the way they lost their opening set to visiting Wausau West last Tuesday.
The Hatchets immediately took control of the match to triumph 3-1, then knocked off all five opponents in Saturday’s Hatchet Invite in straight sets to run their season record to a stellar 36-5.
Tomahawk turned in wins over Auburndale (26-24, 25-22), Menomonie (25-8, 25-17), Reedsville (25-10, 25-10), Osceola (25-12, 25-9) and the Hatchet JV (25-10, 25-11), which was filling in for no-show Elcho.
“There was a lot of teamwork, great distribution of the balls, and aggressive serving and attacking,” THS coach Jen Pfannerstill said. “We were active at the net blocking, and passed very well. Our primary passers did a good job of helping us to run our offense, and our setters had a nice day. Blocking was a strength throughout the day and really gave us the ability to be offensive.
“I was satisfied with our effort, especially against Osceola to close out the day. Both Osceola and Auburndale are having great seasons, and to sweep them is a great confidence booster. Auburndale played so scrappy and we had to work hard for our kills against them.”
The All-Tournament team included Kaitlin Doughty, Sydney Lakatos, Anna Sudbury and Kellan Flynn.
Providing firepower were: Sudbury (17 k, 10 ac, 40 as, 3 d, 8 bl); Lakatos (32 k, 4 ac, 22 d, 2 bl); Doughty (21 k, 11 ac, 18 d); Flynn (14 k, 4 ac, 7 bl); Kaylin Olson (8 k, 3 ac, 52 as, 15 d); Jenna Otterholt (4 ac, 40 d); Kelsey Paramore (7 k, 7 ac, 7 d); Kayli Ogstad (6 k, 5 bl); Hannah Bailey (5 k); Emily Garrison (3 d).
Rallying to rout the Warriors
After dropping a 25-13 set, the THS girls answered with 25-23, 25-16 and 25-12 sets over the 3rd-place WVC squad.
“We started off the night on the wrong foot and were making too many unforced errors,” Pfannerstill said. “However, we were able to right the ship in the second set and start to play more aggressively. The third and fourth sets were pretty controlled. We were earning quite a few points from the service line, and our blocking picked up.
“We made some adjustments after the first set and the kids responded to that change well; the match ups seemed to work more in our favor and we were able to run more of our offense.”
Propelling the team were: Sudbury (9 k, 3 d, 23 as); Olson (6 k, 5 d, 23 as); Lakatos (13 k, 14 d); Doughty (10 k, 12 d); Flynn (5 k, 7 ac); Ogstad (3 k, 3 bl); Otterholt (12 d).