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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield volleyball team won six straight Wisconsin Valley Conference titles between 2001-06, but has not been back on top since.
This year’s team wants to change that, and coach Dawn Sadowska said they have the talent to do so.
The Tigers return all but one of their players from a year ago when they went 9-3 and finished third in the WVC, and reached the Division 1 sectional semifinals for the first time since 2006.
Leading the way is senior hitter Tiffany Stargardt, a unanimous first-team all-conference and honorable mention all-state selection last year as a junior.
Senior Mikala Sebastian, and juniors Chelsea Akin, Courtney Bauer, Morgan Brenner and Miranda Forrest round out a strong front line that is backed up by setter Tori Nanstad and libero Darian Molter, both juniors.
“I don’t set goals lightly, I do try to be realistic, and I know that every team can’t have the state tournament as their goal, but it is a realistic goal for us,” Sadowska said. “Our sectional is going to be tough with Merrill and Eau Claire North again, SPASH is now over in our sectional so there might be some surprises, but the I think the experience and some of the things that happened last year made us stronger. I’ve already seen things that they have grown over the summer. I can see them maturing.”
Marshfield beat Merrill at its season-opening Marshfield Invitational on Tuesday, something the Tigers had not done in four years. Getting over that hurdle was a big confidence boost for Marshfield, Stargardt said.
“Merrill was a big match for us and it was huge to come out with a win,” Stargardt said. “The experience, coming off of last year with the same team basically, we just have so much more experience and we are ready. We know what to expect.”
Sadowska had this all in mind two years ago when this year’s junior class first came to Marshfield High School. The past two seasons have been a work in progress to get to the point where the team is now.
“We were very careful not to move them up too quickly – that first year we only took two – but we got them their experience, and more of them last year,” Sadowska said. “The goal, since we’ve seen them, that by the time they were juniors when we still had Tiffany and Mikala as seniors, we wanted to have them ready to make a run this season to win the conference and make it to the state tournament.”
Along the way, the Tigers have built up a tremendous bond that goes a long way and helps lead to their success on the court. Molter said team chemistry is the Tigers’ biggest asset.
“I think we’re starting out very strong and kind of starting where we left off last year,” Molter said. “Hopefully, we’ll keep getting better. We’re hoping for state – to get to that level.
“We all know how each other plays and the experience we all have on varsity.”
Stargardt echoes those thoughts.
“We definitely get along well and a lot of us our friends outside of volleyball,” she said. “We all hang out a lot and that helps build the team chemistry and bring it out on the court.”
Marshfield, which tied for first place with a 4-1 record at the Marshfield Invitational, plays Friday and Saturday at the Sun Prairie Invitational, then opens Wisconsin Valley Conference play Aug. 30 at Wausau West.