This story is sponsored by: The University of Wisconsin-Marshfield/Wood County
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
AUBURNDALE – The Auburndale volleyball team relished in its role as an underdog through the WIAA playoffs and it was no different Saturday night.
The Apaches, seeded fifth in their regional, defeated Oshkosh Lourdes 3-1 in a WIAA Division 3 sectional final at Auburndale High School to advance to next week’s state tournament.
Auburndale won 25-18, 25-13, 23-25, 25-12, to move on to the 2013 WIAA State Girls Volleyball Tournament at the Resch Center in Green Bay. The Apaches will play Racine St. Catherine’s in a Division 3 semifinal at 1 p.m. Friday, Nov. 8. The championship game is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 9.
Lourdes was the second No. 1 seed Auburndale defeated in the postseason after beating Athens last Saturday in a regional final. The Apaches were the lower seeded team in four of their five matches in the Division 3 playoffs, but they were confident nonetheless.
“We used our momentum and we had hope this whole time,” Auburndale senior hitter Camille Swart said. “We just kept driving, driving for our final goal. Although we had a few people thinking, ‘Oh, they’re a fifth seed,’ we just kept driving and driving and came out on top.”
Auburndale coach Peggy Empey said the team was able to pull together through tough times throughout the season and in the playoffs. The Apaches won three matches in a row in five games, including a sectional semifinal against Stanley-Boyd where they trailed 2-0.
“We are so excited,” Empey said. “It’s been a really huge battle throughout the whole playoffs. We’re thankful for this close-knit team that they were always able to pull together and keep on pushing through and never give up.”
Auburndale got its offense rolling and used a 7-0 run late in Game 1 to power past the Knights. Shannon Yahnke had three kills and Jeanette Peplinski added two kills and two assists in the run that turned a 15-14 deficit into a 21-15 lead. A kill by Kendra Kundinger ended the game with a 25-18 win.
In the second game, the Apaches dominated from the start. Auburndale jumped out to a 14-5 lead and pushed it to 22-10 after two straight kills from Swart, who led the team with 13 kills in the match.
An illegal rotation call on the Knights gave Auburndale the winning point in a 25-13 win.
Neither team led by more than two points in Game 3.
Auburndale led 22-20 after a kill by Yahnke and a miscue from the Knights, but Lourdes rallied to score the next four points and won 25-23.
The fourth game started much the same as the third, but Auburndale had enough.
Auburndale led 10-9 before unleashing its attack again. Yahnke had two block kills to spark a 15-3 run by the Apaches as they closed out the victory.
“We came out strong with our belief and our hope and we came out on top,” Swart said.
Auburndale is making its third state tournament appearance. The Apaches made it in 2009 and 2010, losing to St. Catherine’s in the semifinals before St. Catherine’s went on to win the Division 3 state title.
Those Apaches’ teams were Marawood Conference South Division champions and a high seed in the playoffs, so the trips to state weren’t totally unexpected. This year, however, was quite different.
“I knew the whole time that this team had it in them,” Empey said. “With lots of prayer – we talked about it, we wrote in journals, ‘What is your fire? Why do you play this sport?’ The girls were digging deep and looking for that reason. When they figured it out, they were able to catch fire and play the way I knew they could play all along.”
Kundinger finished with 29 assists and 10 digs, libero Hannah Castellano had 20 digs and Yahnke added 11 kills and four blocks for Auburndale.