This story is sponsored by: The Marshfield Tiger Booster Club
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield girls basketball team won its first Wisconsin Valley Conference championship in five years last season, and the expectations are to do the same in 2016-17.
The Tigers return four starters from a team that finished a perfect 12-0 in the Valley and 23-3 overall, reaching the WIAA Division 1 sectional finals before losing to Appleton North by two points.
Senior Ema Fehrenbach is back after scoring 18 points and grabbing eight rebounds per game, earning first-team all-WVC honors.
Fellow senior Maddie Nikolai (8 points per game) also is back, along with juniors Meg Bryan (8 ppg) and Hannah Meverden (8 points, 10 rebounds per game). Meverden is out with a knee injury suffered during volleyball and the timetable for her return is not known.
“We have tons of experience back from last year,” coach Heidi Michaelis said. “Obviously Meverden being out initially hurts us, but it’s always another opportunity for other younger athletes to step in and contribute and get great court time. Both Fehrenbach and Nikolai are ready to lead this team and have worked extremely hard in the off season playing all summer and in the fall to get ready.”
Sophomore Jenna Jakobi joined the varsity midway through last season and contributed valuable minutes during the playoff run. Juniors Corianne Johnson, Katie Osinski, Sophie Koehn and Kendra Tremelling will also fight for playing time.
The Tigers started their season Nov. 17 with a tough six-point nonconference loss at Hortonville, the beginning of a difficult nonconference schedule that includes defending Big Rivers Conference co-champion Chippewa Falls and Badger North co-champion Waunakee, one of the other teams to have knocked off Marshfield last year.
“Our schedule is brutal for nonconference, but the most important thing is that we are the best team possible at the end of the season,” said Michaelis, who is stellar 280-80 in 15 seasons as Marshfield’s head coach. Last year’s conference title was the eighth for the Tigers under Michaelis.