This story is sponsored by: American Family Insurance – Randy Le Moine Agency
By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Marshfield’s front line was on top of its game from the start of Saturday’s WIAA Division 1 volleyball regional final.
Courtney Bauer had three of her 13 kills in the opening game and Tiffany Stargardt had six of her team-high 17 kills in the final game as No. 1 seed Marshfield rolled to a 3-0 win over No. 8 Menomonie on Saturday night at Marshfield High School.
The Tigers won 25-11, 25-16, 25-22, to advance to next week’s sectional. Marshfield will play the winner of the Eau Claire North-Rhinelander match in a Division 1 sectional semifinal at 6 p.m. Thursday at Chippewa Falls High School. The winner of that match advances to the sectional final on Saturday, Oct. 27, at Wausau East.
Marshfield is looking for its first state tournament appearance since 2006.
“We talked about how we’ve been hitting, hitting, hitting,” Marshfield coach Dawn Sadowska said. “Our team likes to hit hard, it looks good, but this week we talked about how you need to mix it up because teams are figuring out where we’re hitting and they’re digging us. So, you saw a lot more tips tonight than you usually see from our team and that just a lot of smart play.”
Marshfield scored the first six points of the first game behind the serve of Chelsea Akin and Bauer served five straight points later in the game as the Tigers were never threatened.
Menomonie hung with the Tigers early in Game 2 before Mikala Sebastian had a kill for a sideout and Akin served five points in a row to put Marshfield up 16-10.
Bauer closed out the second game with two kills, pushing Marshfield to the brink of victory.
The Mustangs led 16-12 in Game 3 before Marshfield came back to life behind the hitting of Stargardt and Sebastian. Sebastian had a block kill and two spike kills to give Marshfield its first lead at 20-19 and the Tigers held on from there.
“They (Menomonie) had so much energy and they kept that energy going for the whole match,” Sadowska said. “It was the same way last year with them. They know they can do it and they just come together as a team and decide now is the time to go, I guess.”
Setter Tori Nanstad had 20 assists and Bauer added 14 assists, while libero Darian Molter led the Tigers’ defense with 17 digs.