Bulldogs sweep Toppers in D-SC volleyball finale

GLENWOOD CITY — A solid service game, good defense and strong net play helped Boyceville jump to early leads in each set against rival Glenwood City which eventually led the Bulldogs to a three-set road sweep of the Hilltoppers here last Tuesday, October 13 in the Dunn-St. Croix conference volleyball finale for both squads.

Despite being played in Glenwood City, the Bulldogs had a strong following that helped boost them to the match win by scores of 25-8, 25-15 and 25-10.

“The girls were really fired up to play (Glenwood City),” stated Corrie Roemhild, Boyceville head coach. “One of our goals was to miss very few serves and we did that. The girls were able to stay focused and played hard the entire match. It was nice to end the conference season with a win.”

The victory gave the Bulldogs a 5-3 record and fourth place finish in the Dunn-St. Croix. Overall, Boyceville is 13-11.

On the other side of the net, the Hilltoppers struggled from the opening serve.

Glenwood City, who finished the regular and conference season schedules without a win, just could not get any momentum going throughout the match.

The Bulldogs’ service game and strong presence at the net proved lethal for the Hilltoppers.

Boyceville registered 20 kills in the match including ten from junior Madysn Riek and five by junior Hannah Guy.

Becca Moll’s lone kill gave the Toppers a shortlived 1-0 advantage to start the match. But with Guy serving and Riek standing tall at the net, the Bulldogs bounded to a 7-1 lead.

The Boyceville advantage would grow to double digits (14-4) on a Erica Sempf tip shot and an ace from senior Jenna Beyrer. With Morgan Kuhn serving, Boyceville increased its lead to 19-5 thanks to a several Glenwood City errors.

Cassie Malean scored a pair of kills and then served out the win for a 25-8 Bulldog victory in the first set.

Like the first set, Boyceville took an early lead but Glenwood City rallied to within a point several times in the second set. The Hilltoppers, however, were unable to wrestle the lead from the Bulldogs.

A nine to one run help Boyceville distance itself in the middle of the second set to take a 20-11 lead.

A Briana Barstad kill followed by Samantha Holldorf’s tip shot ended Boyceville’s scoring run.

Riek responded with a kill and Guy served up an ace to move the Bulldogs to within three points of the set-two win.

After Jenesa Klinger scored a kill of her own to get the Toppers to within seven at 15-22, a GC error followed by a Riek tip and Malean ace gave the Bulldogs the 25-15 win.

Knotted at five a side in the third set, closed out the match with a 20 to five run as Riek smashed the set and match winner in the third for the 25-10 victory and sweep.

Cassie Malean had three digs and a pair of kills for the Boyceville. Guy also tallied four digs to go with her five kills, Marki Lagerstrom added three digs and Beyrer two and Erica Sempf had a trio of kills in the winning effort.

Glenwood City finished with 13 kills of its own led by Jenesa Klinger who tallied five and Carlee Strong’s three. Strong also registered six assists and an equal number of services. Megan Speiser finished with four assists and Moll had three. Mariah Voeltz led the Toppers with six digs.

While the match was the final regular season tune-up for the Toppers, the Bulldogs concluded their pre-tournament schedule two days later with a non-conference match in Somerset.

The Spartans took the match in three sets, beating Boyceville 19-25, 22-25, and 15-25.

Despite being swept, the Bulldogs were quite competitive especially in the first two sets.

“Somerset has a good team,” noted Coach Roemhild. “We played them tough in the first two games but we were just too inconsistent throughout the night.”

“We made some really good plays only to follow them by errors.”

Hannah Guy finished the Somerset match with five digs and four kills, Madysn Riek had a trio of digs and aces to go with seven kills, and Jenna Beyrer had a team-high nine digs with Morgan Kuhn, Marki Lagerstrom and Jaida Peterson adding seven, four and three respectively.

Erica Sempf had three kills and Cassie Malean two.

Both Glenwood City and Boyceville opened the WIAA Division 3 regional quarterfinals on the road. The fifth-ranked Bulldogs traveled to fourth-seeded Unity while Glenwood City, seeded seventh, had to travel to St. Croix Falls to play the second-seeded Saints. The winner of the Boyceville-Unity match will face top-seeded Grantsburg in the Thursday, October 22 semifinal. The St. Croix Falls-Glenwood City victor will face the winner of the match between D-SC champ and third-seed Colfax and Webster, a sixth seed.

The regional championship game will be played on Saturday, October 24.