MARSHFIELD – The Marshfield Columbus Catholic volleyball team had all facets of the game clicking in high gear during Thursday’s match against Neillsville.
The Dons rolled to a 3-0 win to improve to 3-0 in the Cloverbelt Conference East Division. The defending conference champions won 25-14, 25-9, 25-9, and was never threatened.
Columbus jumped out to a 15-6 lead in the first set and scored four points in a row off the serve of Brianna Post before closing it out.
In the second set, Katie Hall served six-straight points to start it for the Dons. After Neillsville closed to within five at 13-8 on a pair of aces from Bianca Fischer, Emmalee Jicinsky had a kill to earn a sideout and Post served six points in a row to make it 20-8.
Brooke Neider served out the match with five-straight points, two coming on kills by freshman Dorci Walker.
“I’m really proud with how the girls played tonight and how they played hard all three games,” Columbus coach Kat Egle said. “Sometimes they let up in Games 2 and 3, but they didn’t stop playing at all. They played together, they were talking to one another, and our defense was great, so it was easy to run our offense.”
The third set was more of the same for the Dons. After falling behind 2-0, Columbus scored 16 of the next 17 points to take control.
Annie Baierl served 10 points in a row, including three aces. A kill by Kate Turchi and a Neillsville error finished off the match.
Columbus has a number of weapons and they were on full display against the Warriors. Walker, Jakopin, Maren Seefluth, Turchi, Jicinsky and Kenzie Hansen all put down kills for the Dons’ offense.
“Brooke (Neider), our setter, is probably in heaven,” Egle said. “She has all those five hitters, and even another one that doesn’t get a lot of playing time but she’s a great sub that goes in there and helps with us. It’s like a coach’s dream that we can set everybody. I love it, and I think they love it.”
Baierl finished with 16 digs and seven service aces, Hall added 12 digs, and Neider had 27 assists for the Dons.
Seefluth and Hansen both had six kills, and Jakopin had five kills and five blocks as well for Columbus.
Columbus Catholic will travel to Medford for a tournament on Saturday, before playing at home against Colby in a conference match Tuesday. Colby was tied for first in the Cloverbelt East heading into play Thursday.
“Our weekends are booked with some tough tournaments,” Egle said. “This weekend will be in Medford with some state-ranked teams again. That’s going to be fun. With conference play we take it day by day, trying to adjust our offense, and scout the teams and see who we need to cover. We’re not looking at the playoffs yet. We’re just looking at Saturday and then back to conference play.”
Paul Lecker is publisher of MarshfieldAreaSports.com and a contributor to focusonmarshfield.com
Author: News Desk
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