Mounders volleyball takes hard earned win over Brookwood, season ends with loss to Cashton
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The Elk Mound volleyball season came to an end on Thursday evening, October 24, with a three-set road loss to Cashton in the 2019 WIAA Division 3 volleyball tournament.
Elk Mound did earn a regional opening win against Brookwood last Tuesday, October 22, to start the week off on a high note with a 3-0 victory.
Head coach Samantha Stelter spoke highly of her team stating that, “These girls without a doubt will do wonderful things and I’m excited to see what personal mark next year’s team will leave.”
Thursday night was a hard pill to swallow for the Lady Mounders as they lost 22-25, 12-25, and 18-25 on the road at Cashton. Elk Mound struggled to slow down the quick offense, especially from the middle.
Elk Mound finished the season at 25-16.
Brookwood
The Mounders started their post season run with a win in last Tuesday evening’s, October 22, regional quarterfinal match against the Brookwood Falcons. Elk Mound earned a three-set sweep by scores of 25-12, 25-19 and 25-15.
Lexi Nechanicky led Elk Mound at the net as she earned a 40 percent kill rate with 10 kills over the three sets.
Also, earning kills for the Mounders was Sophie Cedarblade with nine kills in her 27 attempts and Maggie Bartig with eight kills.
It was a quiet night for Elk Mound from the service line as there were only eight aces put up. Morgan Kinblom, Issie Hollister and Hailey Blaskowski each had two and McKenna Diermeier and Tessah Tyman each had one.
Blocking was also few and far between as Maggie Bartig and Kortnee Halgren had the only two blocks of the evening.
Libero McKenna Diermeier led with 20 digs for the defense followed by Morgan Kinblom with eight to give her 2.7 per set.
Kortnee Halgren was a key player as she set the ball up 30 times for her teammates in her 31 attempts.
With the win the Mounders earned a second-round match against Cashton.
Cashton
Elk Mound dropped the ball literally and figuratively in Thursday’s loss in Cashton, as they were unable to put together a good offense and defense.
Cashton won a three-set sweep of the Mounders with scores of 25-22, 25-12 and 25-18.
“The girls played very hard, but Cashton was the better team,” said coach Stelter. “Our passers did a great job putting the ball where it needed to be, but we weren’t able to capitalize on that offensively.”
Sophie Cedarblade led offensively with eight kills, followed by Lexi Nechanicky with seven kills, and Maggie Bartig and Susan Marquardt each had five.
Sophomore Issie Hollister was on point from the service line as she had five aces giving her a 31.3 serve percentage for the evening.
“It’s hard to generate momentum when you’re consistently on the defense and it was just too much for us last night,” said Stelter. “However, I can’t say enough about this team this season.”
On the defensive side of things, it was rather quiet as only one block was to be had by senior Maggie Bartig.
McKenna Diermeier led with 19 digs, followed by Kortnee Halgren with 11, and Issie Hollister had ten, Halgren also had 20 assists.
“I saw the confidence of many players grow from previous seasons and I think it paid off for them,” Stelter explained. “All season the team was incredibly flexible with line-up changes and truly accepted the non-traditional approach I took to positions.”