Back-to-back regional titles

Edgar beats familiar foe in Marathon

By Casey Krautkramer

Edgar’s varsity volleyball team defeated Marawood Conference foes Marathon and Stratford by identical 3-1 match scores in home regional play to win back-to-back WIAA Division 3 regional championships this season.

On Thursday, Edgar fended off a feisty Stratford squad that has improved immensely throughout the season. The Wildcats won the first set, 25-16, before the Tigers took the second set, 25-20. Stratford’s Tigers mascot did everything he or she could to pump up the crowd, but it was all Edgar from that point forward. The Wildcats won the third and fourth sets by scores of 25-19 and 25-14 to win the regional semifinals match.

Edgar’s individual player statistics were not available. Senior Allison Lindner led Stratford with four serve aces while senior Sonia Peterson and sophomore Emerson Roy added two aces each. Sophomore Kalyn Schueller paced the Tigers with nine attack kills and senior Tessa Berg had eight.

Sophomore Daisy Yoder led Stratford with four blocks while Lindner and Schueller contributed two apiece. Roy paced the squad with 17 set assists and Peterson added 10. Senior Ava Weix led Stratford with 19 digs on defense while Schueller contributed 15. Roy and Berg had 10 digs apiece. Stratford concludes this season with an 1819 match record.

Edgar advanced to play archrival Marathon on Saturday in the regional championship.

Marathon surprised Edgar with a 25-20 set win to start the match. The Red Raiders continued to play tough volleyball against the Wildcats throughout the remainder of the match, but the Wildcats prevailed with three straight set wins by scores of 25-19, 25-23 and 27-25. The Wildcats defeated the Athens Bluejays in last season’s WIAA Division 3 regional championship to begin its string of two straight regional titles.

Wildcats senior Kendalyn Dahlke savored the regional title win on Saturday but she and her teammates have much bigger goals to achieve yet this season.

“Going to state would mean a lot to us,” Kendalyn, the daughter of Scott and Kari Dahlke, said. “Going to state has been a goal for us since we were in fifth grade. We have been really pushing to get to state this year ever since we lost to Marshfield Columbus in the sectional semifinals last year. That loss really pushed us in the gym more because we don’t want to have that feeling again of how close we were to beating Columbus but we lost when the match was right at our fingertips, so this year we are pushing harder to get to state.”

Edgar’s individual player statistics were not available against Marathon either. Junior Ava Krueger led Marathon with 12 kills while junior Lauren Karlen had nine. Karlen paced the team with two aces. Senior Ashley Phakitthong led Marathon with 19 digs and junior Emily Knoeck added 16. Ava Krueger contributed 13 digs and senior Emma Debroux had 10.

Phakitthong paced the Red Raiders with 24 assists. Marathon defeated Cadott, 3-2, in Thursday’s home regional semifinals match to advance to play Edgar in the regional championship. The Red Raiders conclude their season with a 17-12 match record and the Wildcats improve to 24-6.

Dahlke of Edgar has lots of sports accomplishments yet to achieve before she and her senior volleyball friends, Reagan Borchardt and Ashley Erickson, graduate from Edgar High School this spring and study agriculture next fall at UW-River Falls.

“We have a lot of farm girls on our volleyball team,”n Dahlke said.

Edgar’s volleyball team, seeded No. 1 on its side of the sectional, plays against another Marawood Conference foe, No. 3 seed Auburndale, in a WIAA Division 3 sectional semifinals match at 7 p.m. this Thursday, Oct. 27, in Edgar. Auburndale downed No. 2 seed Stanley-Boyd, 3-0, in the regional championship. The Wildcats beat the Eagles in both regular-season matches this season. Auburndale has a 24-10 match record.

The winner of Thursday’s sectional semifinals match will play in the sectional championship match for the right to qualify for state at 7 p.m. this Saturday, Oct. 29, at Auburndale High School.

Edgar would play against the winner between the other sectional semifinals match between No. 1 seed Wittenberg- Birnamwood, 26-8, and No. 2 seed Weyauwega-Fremont, 23-8.