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MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield volleyball team defeated D.C. Everest for the third time this season, downing its Wisconsin Valley Conference rival 3-1 to win a WIAA Division 1 regional title on Saturday night at Marshfield High School.
Marshfield (37-4) won 25-19, 25-23, 22-25, 25-17, to advance to a Division 1 sectional semifinal Thursday at Wausau East against No. 1 seed Hudson (34-2). The match will begin at 6 p.m. River Falls and Eau Claire Memorial will play in the other sectional semifinal at Menomonie, with the two semifinal winners playing at Marshfield in a sectional final, and a berth in the state tournament, on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 7 p.m.
“I am so happy for this team on them taking the regional final, a goal we had this year along with winning conference,” Marshfield coach Josh Knecht said. “We knew D.C. Everest would give us a battle, and to their credit we had a big lead in game 3 and they managed to turn the momentum and win that set.
“I was a little worried about how our girls would respond from that loss, since Hudson in the regional final last year had lost the first two sets, like Everest, but then took the last three sets to give us a heartbreaking loss. This was something we talked about in practice, to mentally prepare the team, and I was really happy we came back in game 4 and took the lead and momentum right back to win the match.”
Lauren Homolka had 17 kills, three block kills and four service aces, and Kailyn Kurth finished with 28 assists, 12 digs and three aces for the Tigers.
Della Smith added seven kills and had 17 digs, Zaida Kolbeck also had 17 digs, and Sophia Olson had six kills for Marshfield.