DSHA, Oconomowoc set up Division 1 state title rematch
ASHWAUBENON - In a rematch of last season's state championship, the Divine Savior Holy Angels Dashers and Oconomowoc Raccoons were set to face off again for the WIAA Division 1 title in girls volleyball. The top two teams took different approaches to the Friday night semifinals, with the Dashers rolling over the Sussex Hamilton Chargers in straight sets, while the Raccoons were pushed to four sets (including an extended first) by the Appleton North Lightning.
DSHA defeated Hamilton (25-16, 25-20, 25-7) while Oconomowoc lost 29-27 in the first, before winning the next three 25-16, 25-10, 25-21.
Before fans could even find their seats, the Dashers had gone up 7-0 on the Chargers. Hamilton was forced to use two timeouts before it had even scored its second point, at 12-1. After a 9-6 Hamilton run made it 18-10 the Chargers felt they could push DSHA. That proved to be the case again, when facing set point at 24-11, the Dashers let Hamilton chip into the lead.
After a push from the Chargers, led by Holly Hawthorne, the Dashers notched match point on a kill by Madison Quest.
“Madison Quest, I'm not sure how many kills she had, I stopped counting,” Hamilton coach Traci Buhr joked. Quest finished with 18 kills, two fewer than needed to break into the top five of most kills in a state tournament match. “She's close to that record again. Thank God we didn't give it to her.”
The final kill of the first set was a reminder to the Chargers that Quest, who is committed to Wisconsin, and DSHA could take over the match at a moment's notice.
Oconomowoc gets early wake-up call before clinching
The Dashers and Chargers were closing in on the end of their second set before the Raccoons finished their first against the Lightning. A set that went to 29-27 seemed to indicate it could be a long night for last season's state runnerup.
“I think we were reading it well, but we were just, we weren't exactly like right there,” senior Anna Bjork said. “And we needed to just trust in each other. Like for me if I was reaching for a block, I needed to trust that my defense was there. Or our defense just has to trust that they're going to be there.”
In the second set, the Raccoons were able to pull away with ease at the midway point, winning 25-16. It was due in part to the trust mentioned by Bjork. But there was another aspect as well.
“Another big difference was definitely our serving” senior Olivia Kwiatkowski said. “In the first set they were in system a lot. And then the second set we really turned it up and kept them out of system and it kept them from setting their best hitter a lot of the time. So that was helpful.”
The final set saw Oconomowoc go up 24-18, before stalling at match point for several rallies. Appleton North was able to whittle the lead to 24-21, before a whizzing kill by Kwiatkowski put an emphatic statement on the match.
Pewaukee falls in Division 2 semifinal
McFarland moved on to face topseeded and defending Division 2 state champion Xavier with an 18-25, 25-23, 25-23, 16-25, 18-16 victory Pewaukee.
The No. 2 seeded Pirates did all they could to play for the gold ball on Saturday, erasing a 2-1 set deficit. Pewaukee fought back in the fourth set behind a 9-0 run to take a 19-7 lead on its way to the 25-16 win.
In the final set, back-to-back kills had the Pirates on the cusp of winning the match twice, but two McFarland kills and a Pirates error ended the comeback.