This story is sponsored by: Chili Implement
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield volleyball team did not lose a set on its way to a Wisconsin Valley Conference championship this season, which included a pair of sweeps against Wisconsin Rapids, the Tigers’ playoff opponent on Thursday.
Marshfield was able to start strong, wiggle out of some shaky moments in the middle and finished off another 3-0 sweep of the Raiders in a WIAA Division 1 regional semifinal at the Chips Hamburgers Fieldhouse at Marshfield High School.
The Tigers won 25-11, 25-16, 25-12, to improve to 33-3 this season. The No. 3 seed Marshfield will host No. 6 Eau Claire North in a Division 1 regional final Saturday at 7 p.m. North beat Wausau East 3-2 on Thursday.
“I feel like maybe we were a little unfocused tonight, but our practices this week have been really good,” Marshfield coach Dawn Sadowska said. “We got this out of our system and hopefully we’ll play a little bit better on Saturday. There were some mental errors tonight that we haven’t been seeing.
“I’m not concerned about it. For a lot of the girls, it’s their first playoff game. For the seniors, it’s their last first playoff game.”
Reinya Balderson served the first six points of the opening set to push Marshfield to a quick lead.
After Rapids got back in it at 9-8, Marshfield ripped off 16 of the next 19 points. Balderson had five aces as she finished the set with eight-straight service points, and Caitlyn Pernsteiner had three kills in the final run for the Tigers.
Marshfield had its offense rolling a bit more in the second set as Balderson assisted on 12 points. Grace Taylor had four kills and Abby Ongna added three as the Tigers pulled out to an 18-9 lead.
Rapids came as close as seven before a sideout and another ace by Balderson ended the set.
Marshfield was in control throughout the third set, jumping out to an 8-3 lead after kills by Taylor and Rylee Corteen.
Rapids closed the gap before the Tigers scored six in a row, which included two aces from Ashlyn Barwick.
The Raiders didn’t have much left as Persteinter and Corteen each had two kills in a 6-1 run to finish off the match for Marshfield.
Ongna had 10 kills, Balderson had 30 assists and nine aces, and Elise Uphoff had 10 digs to lead the Tigers.
Corteen and Pernsteiner each added eight kills, and Taylor finished with seven kills as well for Marshfield.
“I really liked how our middles played tonight,” Sadowska said. “Lauren (Homolka) and Rylee both did a really good job. Grace, I think people forget about her over there and she was putting the ball down well. Our serving was good, and that’s kind of what we’re counting on going forward. We’ve been working on serving aggressively and we did that tonight to keep them on our heels.”
Click here for the statewide regional scoreboard and schedule.