Hilltoppers end season against McDonell Central

By Kelsie Hoitomt

CHIPPEWA FALLS – The Hilltopper volleyball team ended their season against the McDonell Central Macks on Tuesday, October 16.

The Macks swept the Toppers in three matches 25-19, 25-8 and 25-18 and they beat Turtle Lake on Thursday to advance to the final round of Regionals.

The Toppers retired six seniors in Elizabeth Nyhus, Kelsie Knops, Ashley Burns, Haley Tiberg, Maggie Jordheim and Stephanie Caress who have been a crucial part of the team this season.

Tiberg and Knops finished their careers strong at the net, each with five kills. Tiberg also had two service aces and two blocks. Knops had four service aces and seven digs.

Also playing strong for the team were Mikaela Voeltz, who had two digs in the back row, and Kelly Perkins who had five kills and two blocks.

“It looked like it was going to be a really close match-up and it was only a couple of missed serves and questionable ref calls that made the difference between the two teams. In the first game they played a little up tight and nervous, hesitating to go for balls and not being as aggressive as they could be, said first year head coach Chelsea Culver. We had worked on a new faster offense all week and they were running new plays and it was a lot of fun to see them trying new things. The second game they lost their confidence and we struggled with our passing. This prevented the offense from running successful plays and scoring points. The third game they came back a little, but still struggled on serve receive and couldn’t pull the win out”.

The Toppers ended their season 1-8 in the conference, an improvement from the 0-9 season last year.