Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Bowler High School junior Reanne Kietlinski passes a ball during practice on Wednesday. Kietlinski is one of six Panthers players who have played the majority of points this season.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Bowler High School senior setter Saychia Wayka distributes the ball to one of her team’s many hitters in preparation for Thursday’s sectional semifinal match against Florence in Lena.
Nothing has seemed to faze the Bowler Panthers volleyball team yet this season.
In preparation for the program’s first-ever sectional appearance, the Panthers, who finished second in the difficult Central Wisconsin Conference-10, showed a calm confidence in practice Wednesday heading into Thursday’s meeting with Florence in a WIAA Division 4 semifinal.
“There’s no stress there, and I don’t put any on them,” Bowler head coach Brad Brei said. “I don’t say, ‘We’re going in tomorrow night and we’ve got to win.’ I tell them, ‘We go there. We have fun. You play as hard as you can. What happens, happens. Play your game. You’ve got a good chance.’”
The Panthers, who fell in the regional title game in each of the previous two seasons, are excited to make it this far.
“We wanted to play the best and get past a regional championship, because the past two years, we lost there, so we wanted to make it farther this year,” senior Brooke Breitrick said.
Now that they’ve made it this far, they don’t know what to expect.
“Trying to play it cool,” Breitrick said.
Bowler relies mostly on four seniors and two juniors to play the majority of the points, not subbing unless necessary.
Although this system is atypical for many programs, Breitrick sees the benefits.
“The strength would be that our team works together,” Breitrick said. “We focus on talking and moving as one unit so that we can get all the balls up.”
Brei also moves his players around in the front row, letting setters Saychia Wayka and Maranda Brei hit from the outside when possible, and Taylor Matsche, along with the rest of the team, to hit from all three positions.
“If you’ve got one hitter who is always hitting middle, you know, defense can pretty much read and figure out where she’s going to go. As we’re switching people up, everybody is different as they come through. So to me, it’s a big advantage,” Brad Brei said. “Everybody is different in every different position, so I think it really helps us in the long run against their defense.”
Bowler (18-9, 11-2 CWC-10) defeated Gillett in the regional semifinal and dropped rival Gresham in the regional title match.
The victory over Gresham on Saturday propelled the Panthers to Thursday’s showdown with Florence (16-5, 11-3 Northern Lakes) in the sectional semifinal, and with a victory, likely a meeting with the state’s top-ranked Division 4 team, Newman Catholic.
Bowler isn’t worried about that yet.
“Once they … get into sectionals and we see the teams we have to face as we get farther in, I think they are going to be happy as far as we can make it,” Brei said.