Top-seed Appleton North pounds Kaukauna in WIAA boys volleyball sectional semifinal
By Paul Lecker
AppletonSportsPage.com
APPLETON – The Appleton North boys volleyball team stands one win away from a repeat trip to the state tournament following a fairly dominating 3-0 sweep of Kaukauna in a WIAA sectional semifinal Tuesday night at North High School.
The No. 1 seeded Lightning trailed only once – at 1-0 to start the second set – and rolled 25-17, 25-17, 25-16, over No. 4 seed Kaukauna to move into a sectional final on Saturday against No. 2 seed Kimberly at Kimberly High School at 4:30 p.m. Kimberly swept Fond du Lac/North Fond du Lac 3-0 in other semifinal of the Sectional 1 bracket on Tuesday night. Click here for the statewide sectional scoreboard & schedule
Appleton North started out each set strong, taking commanding leads that the Ghosts were unable to recover from.
Senior setter Connor Cantrell finished with 40 assists and fellow senior Jadon Ciriacks pummeled home 19 kills in the three-set victory for the Lightning.
“I thought we played much better tonight than we did on Friday night (in a regional final win over Appleton West),” Appleton North coach Michael Maass said. “On Friday we kind of went through the motions. We played with more emotion tonight and it made a difference. Every game we were able to get a big lead and kind of coast.
“Once you get a lead, you can kind of let the game come to you instead of trying to press.”
North started the first set with a 6-0 run as its offense was on point from the opening serve. Cantrell set up Nathan Ramus twice, and Ben Brinkman and Grant Hardy once each in the surge.
The Lightning used a 5-0 run later in the set on the serve of Alex Ramus to go up 16-7 and were able to finish off the win on a tip kill by Brinkman, who finished with seven kills in the match.
After Kaukauna took its only lead of the match at 1-0 to start the second set on a kill by Brady Mayer, North earned a sideout on a Brinkman kill and ran off five more points on Cantrell’s serve.
Kaukauna were as close as 17-13 after a block kill by Mayer before North gained firm control with a 6-1 run as Cantrell set up Ciriacks for four-straight kills on the left side. Ciriacks eventually closed out the match with two more kills in the 25-17 victory.
The third set went much the same way for North as it raced out to a 9-2 lead as Ciriacks had three kills and Brinkman two in the run.
North led by no less than five the rest of the way as it continued its offensive prowess.
Trey Truettner had a kill to start a 5-1 run to push the Lightning’s lead to 21-10. Two kills by Max Harbick and another by Ciriacks cemented the victory.
Kimberly is one of just four teams to defeat Appleton North (33-4 overall) this season with a 2-1 win in the Fox Valley Association Tournament championship match on Sept. 9. The Lightning responded three days later with a 3-0 sweep in a conference dual against the Papermakers and have lost just once since.
“We’re going to have to play well, like we did tonight, with some emotion,” Maass said. “We’re going to have to serve a little bit better than we did tonight, but if we play hard, we can make a lot of good things happen. When we play with emotion and with purpose, good things happen for us.”
Appleton North will be looking for its ninth state tournament berth with a win Saturday, including its second in a row. The Lightning reached the semifinals at state in 2022 before losing to Hartland Arrowhead in five sets.