Kimberly sweeps Xavier in WIAA Division 1 girls volleyball sectional semifinal
AppletonSportsPage.com
SUAMICO – The Xavier girls volleyball team won the past two Division 2 WIAA state championships and as a result were moved up to Division 1 this season due to the new competitive balance rules.
The fourth-seeded Hawks found themselves up against a top-tier Kimberly squad that won the Fox Valley Association title and was the No. 1 seed in a sectional semifinal Thursday night at Bay Port High School. Xavier fought to the end, but fell in straight sets, losing 25-11, 25-20, 25-21, to end its quest for a third-straight trip to state.
Xavier finishes the season with a 26-16 record, which included a 10th-straight Bay Conference championship and another regional title.
Kimberly (33-10) moves on to a Division 1 sectional final against No. 2 seed Bay Port (25-2) on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Appleton North High School. Bay Port defeated Kaukauna 25-22, 26-24, 25-15, in the other sectional semifinal Thursday.
“In August, we were pursuing this new goal, and we didn’t know how this season was going to end,” Xavier coach Luke Herriges said. “The team we were in August was not the team we were at the end of October. We grew immensely, the kids put everything they had out there on display and we got beat by a better team tonight, but I’m so proud of who they became along the journey.”
After Kimberly rolled to the win in the first set, Xavier led early in the second at 5-3 before a run by the Papermakers pushed them in front and they were able to finish off a 25-20 win.
The Hawks put up one last fight in the third set, starting out with a 7-2 lead, only to see Kimberly rebound again.
The Papermakers surged ahead and held on for the 25-21 win to finish off the match.
Sydney Neilitz had 24 assists and six digs, Grace Hackl had a team-high 12 digs, and Madison Daley led the offense with 10 kills for the Hawks.
Lexi Allen added five kills, and Rose Kendall and Ali Tylinski each finished with four for Xavier.
“With any team, there’s going to be adversity, good times and rough patches, and it shapes who you are at the end of the year,” Herriges said. “I’m so proud of what we proved we could be, especially with a small school of 240 kids, competing against a school with 1,500-plus, I hope that we earned a little respect from those schools and people out there.
“The kids, the last two years, we won some state championships, but winning the regional in D-1, and going as deep as we did, is something to be just as proud of.”
Click here to view the statewide sectional scoreboard
Ethan Lecker contributed to this story.