Greg Bates, Leader Correspondent
Act like you’ve been there before.
The Bowler girls volleyball team fit that old cliché sports adage to a tee. The Panthers had never advanced to sectionals in program history, but the players sure looked like they’d been there before.
Top-seeded Bowler jumped on No. 2-seeded Florence early and never trailed by more than two points all night as the Panthers won swept the WIAA Division 4 sectional semifinal Thursday night in Lena, 25-18, 25-22, 25-13.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Bowler head coach Brad Brei said. “You can see how excited they are. I’m just as excited for them. I couldn’t believe that we came there and just swept them in three.
“This is the best they’ve played so far all season.”
The Bowler players could hardly hold back their emotions when the final point of the match was registered.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Bowler senior Brooke Breitrick said. “I can’t believe that we got this far. Our team’s worked so well this season, so hard that we’re just glad we made it this far. I think we totally deserve it.”
Brei said the key to the victory was teamwork.
“It’s always teamwork with them,” Brei said. “It’s not just one, it’s all of them. That’s what we’ve been pushing all year. I can’t say our serving was the greatest and our pass receive wasn’t the greatest, but everybody covered everybody else. It was just great teamwork.”
Since it was the Bowler players’ first trip to sectionals, nerves could certainly be a factor in the match. However, it was Florence that looked nervous and timid, and the Panthers took advantage.
“We were pretty calm,” said Breitrick, who finished with a match-high 14 kills. “We’ve never been this far, so we weren’t used to the feeling and we didn’t know what to expect. We were just kind of mellow about it, even though once we started playing it got a little nerve-wracking, but we got through it.”
Brei saw his girls be so relaxed in practice the day leading up to the game, he wasn’t too surprised the attitude the players had once it was game time.
“They came to play tonight. I was really impressed,” Brei said.
Bowler (19-9, 11-2 Central Wisconsin Conference-10) trailed 4-2 to start the first set, but rebounded to take a 13-10 advantage. Florence (16-6, 11-3 Northern Lakes Conference) tied it at 14-14, and then the Panthers tallied 11 of the final 15 points as Maranda Brei got the set winner, 25-18.
“We just played our game,” Breitrick said. “We just focused on getting the balls over and not making any mistakes. We let them make mistakes.”
In the second set, Bowler took a commanding 22-14 lead after a Breitrick kill. Florence came back strong with four straight points to tighten it up. However, another Breitrick spike stopped the bleeding at 23-18, and the Panthers finished out a 25-22 victory.
The third set was all Bowler as it led 19-6 before another Florence rally fell short as the Panthers won 25-13.
“I have to hand it to Bowler, they were able to tip in the right places and we tried to adjust our defense to that and they seemed to find wherever our weak spot was,” Florence coach Joan Canfield said.
Maranda Brei finished with nine kills. Reanne Kietlinski and Taylor Matsche each had three aces for Bowler.
Bowler’s first sectional final will be at 7 p.m. Saturday in Stevens Point. The team is one win away from the state tournament, but standing in the Panthers’ way is three-time defending state champion Newman Catholic. The Wausau-based private school is ranked No. 1 in the Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association poll and features University of Wisconsin commit Mariah Whalen.
Newman Catholic has yet to lose a set in the postseason.
“It’s tough. We can’t get too overconfident, we’ve got to play our game,” Breitrick said. “We’ve just got to keep fighting and don’t let them get in our heads.”