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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The Spencer volleyball team accomplished something on Thursday that it hadn’t done in 37 years.
The Rockets dropped the opening game before storming back for a 3-1 win over Marathon in a WIAA Division 3 sectional semifinal on Thursday night at Auburndale High School. Spencer moves on to the sectional championship match for the first time since 1974, the only time the Rockets advanced to the WIAA State Volleyball Tournament.
Marathon outlasted the Rockets in the first game 25-23 before Spencer pulled away from the Marawood Conference South Division champion Red Raiders and won the final three games 25-21, 25-12, 25-20.
Spencer will take on Kewaunee, a 3-1 winner over Oconto, in a WIAA Division 3 sectional final at 7 p.m. Saturday at Edgar High School.
“It feels awesome. I never knew I was that close (to state),” senior libero Dani Johnson said. “It just feels awesome to finally reach something like this.”
Spencer came back from a 11-6 deficit in Game 1 to take a brief 12-11 lead. Marathon went ahead 13-12 on a kill by Morgan Wirkus and never trailed again, holding on for a 25-23 win.
The Rockets didn’t play terribly in the opening game, so they weren’t too worried.
“What we did was we didn’t attack,” Spencer coach Buff Heller said of the loss in Game 1. “Playing that short little tip game with them and with the way they play defense, that just doesn’t work. Once we figured out that we needed to attack them, it got a lot better.”
Dani Johnson said she knew they would come back.
“We didn’t think anything negative about it,” said Johnson, who recorded her 2,000th career dig in the win. “We knew we’d come back out strong. We’re not a team that rolls over and dies. We believe in each other and our attitude, and we just knew we had it.”
Spencer ripped off six straight points, five on the serve of Alicia Endreas, to pull ahead 12-5 in Game 2. Marathon rallied and eventually tied the game at 21-21 after two kills by Ashlee Southworth, but the Rockets recovered. Kyleigh Hebert set up Tara Matter for four straight kills to close out the game and swing all the momentum to the Rockets.
Matter served six straight points, including two aces, to push Spencer ahead 18-10 in the third game as Marathon unraveled.
Courtney Schulz had two kills and Paige Johnson blocked back-to-back spikes from Marathon for kills to close out the game 25-12.
Marathon recovered in Game 4 and led 14-13 after a kill by Monica Natzke, but the Rockets weren’t about to let this one slip away.
The game was tied twice before kills from Tynae Phillips, Hebert and Matter gave Spencer a 20-17 lead. Matter served the final three points, two scored on Schulz kills, to finish off the match and push the Rockets into sectional finals.
“It’s all about confidence,” Heller said. “We lost a real close match in our conference crossover to McDonell, but we played a solid match. All five games were by two points. Since then, you could just kind of see their confidence creeping. The other night (in a regional semifinal) when they beat Auburndale, their confidence was sky high.
“It was real nice to see them recover after that Game 1 loss and they could get their confidence back.”