Chris Caporale, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Wittenberg-Birnamwood’s Corrissa Konkol (15) and Taylor Nier (14) set a block on an Oconto attack during Witt-Birn’s sweep of the Blue Devils in a WIAA Division 3 sectional semifinal Thursday in Shawano.
Leader Photo by Chris Caporale Wittenberg-Birnamwood outside hitter Lauren Bushman hits through the Oconto block for one of her eight kills in the Chargers’ sweep of Oconto in Shawano.
Aggressive serving from Wittenberg-Birnamwood accounted for 15 aces as the Chargers swept their WIAA Division 3 sectional semifinal with Oconto, 25-8, 25-15, 25-10, Thursday in Shawano.
Wittenberg-Birnamwood head coach Chris Nier had not seen her team serve that well in any match this season.
“That was the best we’ve ever served,” she said.
The Chargers got seven aces and 12 kills from senior outside hitter Taylor Nier, and junior Lauren Bushman pitched in eight kills and five aces to help lift Witt-Birn to its first-ever sectional final appearance.
Bushman has been a steady server for the Chargers all season, but Nier’s aggressive serving from the left side of the service line gave the Blue Devils trouble all night.
“She doesn’t typically serve that aggressively, and they struggled greatly with that,” Chris Nier said. “That’s what we want her to keep doing.”
Getting the ball with a 6-5 lead in the first set, Taylor Nier served four straight points to build a 10-5 lead, and then helped close out the set with three kills.
“I didn’t anticipate us having that much difficulty with the serve reception, so some really nice serves,” Oconto head coach Nancee Buchegar said. “They have some hard floaters, so we struggled there.”
Nier kept things going in the second set. After getting four kills in the first 10 points, she went back to the service line and rattled off four aces to help the Chargers gain control of the set at 16-5 before winning 25-15.
The third set was more of the same, with Wittenberg-Birnamwood jumping ahead 5-1 and 13-5 before Oconto got into its offense and played point-for-point until the score was 16-9. The Chargers won nine of the final 10 points for the sweep.
Oconto middle hitter Becky Berth had eight kills, seven assists and seven digs to lead the team.
Chris Nier knew that Oconto (13-25, 4-6 Packerland Conference) was a more competitive team than the final score indicated.
“I told (Buchegar), ‘I don’t think that score reflects the quality of her team.’ They have fantastic hitting,” Nier said. “But we were able to overcome that because they just struggled so much with serve receive that we didn’t even have to deal with that that much.”
Wittenberg-Birnamwood setter Madi Bushman had 26 assists, which put her at over 1,000 assists on the season
The Chargers (36-7, 10-0 Central Wisconsin Conference-8) will face Athens in the WIAA Division 3 sectional final in Auburndale at 7 p.m. Saturday. Wittenberg-Birnamwood has yet to lose a set in the playoffs, which concerns Nier with her team one game away from advancing to state.
“It worries me when we get in that situation, will we be able to hang with them? But I guess, we’ll see. I’m not going to work them to death to prove they can work a long time,” Nier said. “I enjoy winning in three a lot more than five.”