Oconomowoc surges past Appleton North in WIAA Division 1 state girls volleyball tournament semifinal

By Paul Lecker
AppletonSportsPage.com

GREEN BAY – The Appleton North girls volleyball team picked up where it left off the day before in the opening set of its Division 1 semifinal match against Oconomowoc on Friday night at the WIAA State Girls Volleyball Tournament at the Resch Center.

The Lightning, who rolled to a three-game sweep in a quarterfinal match Thursday over Franklin, had their offense on point throughout the first set Friday night. However, after North pulled out a hard-fought 29-27 win, Oconomowoc was able to flip the script and win the next three, ending the Lightning’s season.

Oconomowoc (41-3) won 27-29, 25-16, 25-10, 25-21, to advance to the Division 1 state championship match where it will take on No. 1 seed Milwaukee Divine Savior Holy Angels (46-1) on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. It is a rematch of last year’s state final that DSHA won in five sets.

A big 11-2 run in the middle of the second set turned a tie game into a commanding lead for Oconomowoc, and the Lightning never could recover. Although North was close to fighting back from a deficit in the fourth set, it just ran out of gas.

“They never gave up and fought for every point,” Appleton North coach Steve Scheuerell said. “They never gave up and fought for not only themselves, but for what was on their jersey. I couldn’t be prouder. They are amazing team. Compliments to Oconomowoc, they played well. That fourth set, if we could have just caught them a little bit earlier, I would have loved to see where it finished up.”

The opening set was tight throughout as Appleton North led by three points on three different occasions, only to see Oconomowoc tie it each time.

North went up 19-16 after three-straight kills by Ella Demetrician, but again Oconomowoc was able rally again, tying the match at 21-21 on a kill from Olivia Kwiatkowski.

The Lightning had two match points staved off by Oconomowoc, which in turn took leads at 26-25 and 27-26, before it was North’s turn to rally. Two kills by Demetrician and an error by the Racoons gave the Lightning a 29-27 win.

The match continued to go back-and-forth for the first part of the second set. North took an 11-9 lead before an ace by Samantha Schultz and a block kill by Marlee Sivak helped the Racoons go ahead 12-11.

After a sideout by North tied it on another kill from Demetrician, who had a match-high 24 overall, Oconomowoc found its rhythm, scoring eight of the next nine points to knock the Lightning back on their heels.

A kill by Kwiatkowski, who along with Sivak finished with 17 kills in the match, gave the Racoons a 25-16 win to even the match and steal any momentum Appleton North may have had.

“I think both teams were playing at a high level and sometimes on the other side of the net they are playing well, too,” Scheuerell said. “The first set was so high energy that maybe we came out (in the second set) a little low, but I thought we both played at a high level.”

The third set was tied 7-7 following two kills by Demetrician and another from Maggie Hahnke for North, before Oconomowoc seized control. An ace by Sivak put Oconomowoc up 10-7 and following a North sideout on a service error, the Racoons finished the set on a 15-2 run to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

North never led in the fourth set as Oconomowoc built a 15-8 lead after an ace from Schultz, her third of the match.

The Lightning battled until the end, getting as close at 21-17 late, but two kills from Kwiatkowski gave Oconomowoc a match point. After North crawled to within 24-21 after a block kill by Kayden Lamon, Kwiatkowski ended it with a kill.

“They put up a great block up and they read us (attacking),” Demetrician said. “We tried to switch things up the best we could.”

However, it seemed that whatever the Lightning tried to stem the Racoons’ momentum wasn’t working.

“We tried to slow it down on our side, look at each other, make eye contact and just ‘We got this. We’re OK right now,’” North senior setter Emerson Van Lannen said. “We did a really good job of picking each other up and playing as a team, and fighting for the school.”

Van Lannen finished with 33 assists and 11 digs, and Teegan Charapata had six kills and 11 digs for the Lightning, who end the year with their fifth-straight state tournament appearance and a 33-8 record.

2023 WIAA State Girls Volleyball Tournament
Nov. 2-4, at Resch Center, Green Bay
Thursday, Nov. 2
Division 1 Quarterfinals
No. 2 Oconomowoc (40-3) 3, No. 7 Burlington (31-10) 0 (25-23, 25-14, 25-13)
No. 3 Appleton North (33-7) 3, No. 6 Franklin (29-15) 0 (25-16, 25-11, 25-15)
No. 1 Milwaukee Divine Savior Holy Angels (45-1) 3, No. 8 River Falls (26-14) 0 (25-12, 25-6, 25-11)
No. 4 Sussex Hamilton (31-11) 3, No. 5 Waunakee (38-9) 0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-12)
Friday, Nov. 3
Division 4 Semifinals
No. 1 Wonweoc-Center (29-2) 3, No. 4 Fall River (30-11) 2 (23-25, 17-25, 25-23, 29-27, 15-7)
No. 2 Wausau Newman Catholic (31-12) 3, No. 3 Prentice (33-9) 0 (25-21, 25-10, 25-15)
Division 3 Semifinals
No. 1 Howards Grove (30-4) 3, No. 4 Neenah St. Mary Catholic (30-5) 0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-19)
No. 2 St. Croix Falls (35-2) 3, No. 3 Cuba City (30-4) 1 (23-25, 25-14, 25-16, 25-10)
Division 2 Semifinals
No. 1 Appleton Xavier (44-3) 3, No. 4 Rice Lake (28-9) 0 (25-15, 25-11, 25-19)
No. 3 McFarland (36-10) 3, No. 2 Pewaukee (37-13) 2 (18-25, 25-23, 25-23, 16-25, 18-16)
Division 1 Semifinals
No. 2 Oconomowoc (41-3) 3,  No. 3 Appleton North (33-8) 1 (27-29, 25-16, 25-10, 25-21)
No. 1 Milwaukee Divine Savior Holy Angels (46-1) 3, No. 4 Sussex Hamilton (38-10) 0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-7)
Saturday, Nov. 4
Championship Matches
Division 4: No. 1 Wonewoc-Center (29-2) vs. No. 2 Wausau Newman Catholic (31-12), 9 a.m.
Division 3: No. 1 Howards Grove (30-4) vs. No. 2 St. Croix Falls (35-2), 11:30 a.m.
Division 2: No. 1 Appleton Xavier (44-3) vs. No. 3 McFarland (36-10), 2:30 p.m.
Division 1: No. 1 Milwaukee Divine Savior Holy Angels (46-1) vs. No. 2 Oconomowoc (41-3), 7:30 p.m.