‘Cats win the Marawood South

Borchardt obtains 1,000 career kills

By Casey Krautkramer

Edgar’s varsity volleyball team beat Wausau Newman Tuesday on the road to win the school’s first Marawood South Conference championship since 2003. It just so happens 2003 was also the one and only time Edgar’s volleyball squad played in the state tournament. Now the question is can the 2022 Wildcats replicate that same amount of success in the postseason too.

Former Edgar varsity volleyball coach Breit Nelson was a senior on the 2003 squad. Her mother, Judy Nelson, led the Wildcats to the state tournament after coaching the volleyball team for the previous 32 years. Current Edgar varsity head coach Evan Krebsbach, an Abbotsford High School graduate, has a chance this season to guide the Wildcats back to the state tournament for the first time in 19 years. Edgar’s 2003 volleyball team lost in the state tournament semifinals.

Middle blocker Reagan Borchardt leads a talented group of Edgar senior volleyball players including middle blocker Kendalyn Dahlke, libero Natalie Krause and setter Leah Davis. Other solid senior players are outside hitter and defensive specialist Carly Feltz and libero and defensive specialist Sondra Pilgrim. The Wildcats also have four talented junior volleyball players in middle blocker Emily Murkowski, right side hitter and middle blocker Brooke Imhoff, rightside and middle hitter Makayla Wirkus and outside hitter Kyra Anderson.

Borchardt achieved her 1,000th spike kill on Thursday during Edgar’s 3-0 road match victory against Crandon. Coach Krebsbach said she is the first Edgar volleyball player to accomplish this feat during the rally scoring era. Borchardt admitted obtaining 1,000 career kills was on her mind going into her senior season.

“Going into the season I knew that I only needed 218 more kills,” she said. “I knew I could achieve that but it might take longer than it would have last year just because we are more advanced than last season. The team hasn’t been relying on me as much as last year because I think everyone has stepped up their game and has really just played their own role on the team. All of our hitters are solid and on any given night, we can rely on any of us.”

She only needed to obtain 13 more kills heading into Thursday’s match against Crandon, which has never been a hard matchup for Edgar.

“My teammates were hyping me up before the match and I told them, ‘let’s just focus on winning, if I get it, I get it, if not it’ll come eventually,’” Borchardt said. “In the first set, we came out slow and we only ended up winning by two points. In the second set we started playing our game and making plays. I believe the score was 8-6 when Crandon had an overpass and I went up and stuffed it. At that point of the game, I had actually forgotten about the 1,000 kills but after the stuff, the game stopped and Kendalyn Dahlke came over and gave me a shove. It was a pretty cool experience, especially since no one in Edgar has accomplished this.”

She said she can’t take all the credit for accomplishing the 1,000 career kills feat, because her teammates have helped her develop into the great volleyball player she is today.

“Without our great defense, my setters wouldn’t be able to get me a set,” Borchardt said. “Without my amazing setters, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am now. I’m thankful to have such a close bond with everyone on the team and hopefully we can pull through and make it to Green Bay.”

She’s referring to the state volleyball tournament at the Resch Center in Green Bay. Last season, Edgar beat Athens in the WIAA Division 4 regional championship and then lost to Marshfield Columbus in a sectional semifinal match. Edgar has a 15-4 overall record in matches thus far this season. Its only match losses are to Athens, Barron, Chippewa Falls and Wittenberg-Birnamwood.

Edgar is honorable mention in this week’s Division 3 coaches poll.