Stratford earns a spot in sectional volleyball final in thriller with Athens

Scott A. Williams
USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

AUBURNDALE - The intensity was at a fever-pitch level from the opening serves. 

Stratford players spent much of Thursday night sharing high-tens that threatened to break bones.

On the other side of the net, Athens players were busy stomping the floor so hard after winning a point it seemed as if they were intent on creating holes in the court.

In a classic thriller fitting of two of the top Division 3 volleyball teams in the state, No. 2 ranked Stratford outlasted the 10th-ranked Bluejays 25-19, 22-25, 19-25, 25-21, 15-9 in a sectional semifinal at Auburndale High School.

The Tigers (43-1) earn a dated with Saint Mary Catholic, a 25-21, 25-21, 14-25, 25-21 winner over Oconto, in the sectional championship match at 7 p.m. Saturday in Athens.

The Tigers are in search of their first trip to the WIAA state tournament.

"I'm exhausted and excited," said Stratford setter Jadyn Dahlke, who admitted getting any sleep Thursday night was probably out of the question. "We came back so much mentally tougher (from a sectional semifinal loss last season). I had no doubt in our team."

Athens was looking to make back-to-back trips to Green Bay, and the school's third state tournament appearance overall, after a 40-year absence.

All signs suggested the Bluejays would move one step closer after they rebounded from dropping the opening set to prevail in the next two.

Instead, their season would end in heartbreaking fashion at the hands of the Tigers, who also beat Athens in four sets during the regular season.

Athens coach Tanille Hartwig felt the final outcome was as much on the shoulders of the Bluejays as any other factor.

"We just never found our game," the Bluejays coach said. "We were missing serves. Balls were dropping. All of that is uncharacteristic of us."

In desperate need of a spark entering the fourth set  Stratford coach Brooke Kafka turned to freshman middle hitter Lauryn Nagel.

Having seen sporadic playing time throughout the opening four sets, Nagel gave the Tigers a much-needed third option in the hitting attack.

Her consecutive kills enabled Stratford to grab a 7-2 lead in the decisive set and it never looked back to insure a potentially history-making season would last at least one more match.

"(Nagel) is a really strong offensive player so we felt like we would give her a chance and see what happens," Kafka said. "We were in this situation (in the sectional semifinal) last year and we showed our youth. Tonight, you could see we were a different team."

And a balanced team. Makayla Krall and Mazie Nagel paced the attack with 19 and 18 kills, respectively.

Dahlke, who served up nine aces, and Brooke Peterson shared the setter role. Dahlke tallied 28 assists and Peterson dished out 26.

Meanwhile, Athens never found a rhythm. Early on the serve receive was off. When that facet got corrected then theere issues in the passing game.

A strong blocking performance at the net was offset by in inordinate amount of seemingly harmless balls sent over the net by the Tigers finding the ground.

It all doomed the Bluejays in a classic battle of state powerhouses.

"Part of that was what they were doing," Hartwig said. "We just kept climbing up a hill it seemed. That wasn't us or how we know we can play."