This story is sponsored by: The Marshfield Tiger Booster Club
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield volleyball team couldn’t have started its season any better as it swept all five opponents to win the Marshfield Tiger Invitational on Tuesday at The Boson Company Fieldhouse at Marshfield High School.
The Tigers won all but one game in the five-match tournament, sweeping Ashland, Antigo, Hudson and Wausau Newman Catholic, and beating Merrill 2-1.
Marshfield and Newman squared off last in the round-robin format, both sporting 4-0 records up to that point.
The Tigers rallied to win the first game 25-23 and took control midway through Game 2 to finish off the tournament title.
With the score tied 10-10, Jenny Scheppler served five-straight points to put Marshfield on top for good. Newman made it 15-13 before the Tigers scored eight of the next nine points and went on to finish off a 25-16 win.
“We knew we were playing good defense and our serve receive has looked good over the summer, we just haven’t had all of our parts in the offseason with people gone and injured,” Marshfield coach Dawn Sadowska said. “It was really nice to see everybody on the court and what our offense is able to do. People started stepping up and doing everything we were asking them to do.”
Anna Ripp had 99 assists, Alexa Aumann topped Marshfield with 37 kills, Sara Dasler had 46 digs, and Jenny Scheppler had nine service aces for the Tigers.
Stephanie Rhodes added 34 kills, Hannah Meverden had 30 kills and 10 blocks, and Aumann added eight blocks for the Tigers.
Marshfield has just two seniors on the roster – Scheppler and Dasler, the libero, – but have a number of other players with varsity experience as juniors Rhodes, Maureen Cassidy, Ema Fehrenbach, Aumann and Ripp all saw time on court as sophomores.
The experience and improved skill level of those who are back has Sadowska excited for the rest of the season.
“One of the things as we ended last season was that we knew that the time our sophomores had on the court, even though we only have two seniors coming back, we were going to have a lot of experience,” Sadowska said. “Anna (Ripp) has been setting now – it’s her third year on varsity – the improvement from her compared to last year is phenomenal. She’s running the offense and that’s helping our offense in that the other team doesn’t know where she’s going to set. She’s doing a really good job.”
Marshfield will compete at the Sun Prairie Invitational on Friday and Saturday, and then get right into the Wisconsin Valley Conference season on Sept. 3 at home against Merrill.
“We go into Sun Prairie and that’s a ton of good competition for us,” Sadowska said. “It will be really good for us to see where we are at and give us a good gauge of where we are in the state. The confidence from tonight is going to help us a lot, and then we have Merrill right away.”
Marshfield Tiger Invitational
Team standings: Marshfield 5-0; Wausau Newman Catholic 4-1; Merrill 3-2; Hudson 2-3; Antigo 1-4; Ashalnd 0-5.
Marshfield results: Marshfield def. Ashland 25-13, 25-12; def. Merrill 20-25, 25-13, 15-10; def. Antigo 25-17, 25-15; def. Hudson 25-20, 25-22; def. Wausau Newman Catholic 25-23, 25-16.