losses, Abbotsford could not quite ….

losses, Abbotsford could not quite match the firepower of Marshfield and Shawano. The latter defeated the Falcons in straight sets, 25-18 and 25-15 and while Abbotsford pushed the hosting Tigers in their first set, they could not quite find a win, falling 27-25 and 25-12.

Brodhagen and Falteisek proved to be Abbotsford’s best option on offense against Shawano, with Falteisek leaving the match with a .625 hitting percentage and Brodhagen leading the team with seven kills. The Falcons also had a season high five blocks as a team in a bestof- three match against the Hawks, with Falteisek and Ruesch both coming away with three assists and Celia Schindler adding two of her own.

Ruesch and Harris both had five kills to lead the Falcons against Marshfield. Falteisek had a team high nine digs and Caylee Clement followed with seven of her own.

Waupaca, 3-1

Last Tuesday, Abbotsford invited the Waupaca Comets into town for a nonconference match. The visitors came out on top in three of the four sets and handed the Falcons their first loss of 2023.

The first set saw Waupaca’s offense putting a lot of pressure on Abbotsford’s receiving and pass game, often not allowing them to set up their ideal, quickhitting offense. Focusing on feeding their top outside hitter, sophomore Peyton Carlson, the Comets forced the home team onto the back foot almost immediately. The Falcons eventually regained their footing, but the first set still went to Waupaca, 25-17.

The home team then came out on top in the most lopsided set of the match in the second set, cruising past the Comets with a final score of 25-13. The final was so drastic to what had occurred in the first set that it appeared that the home team had flipped the match into their favor heading to set number three.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, rather than dwelling on the stunning second set, Waupaca seemed to put it behind them and came out to win both sets three and four by solid margins, claiming 25-16 and 25-18 victories.

While the overall statistics appear very similar, Abbotsford could not quite find an answer to Carlson. She recorded a kill on nearly 50 percent of her attempts, leaving the game with 24 to lead the Comets by a large margin.

On Abbotsford’s side, Brodhagen once again had a jack-of-all-trades kind of performance. She led the team in kills, recording 13, was tied for the team lead in aces with Ruesch and Falteisek with two, was part of a block, dug out nine spikes and recorded 12 assists. Ruesch and Falteisek also had solid all-around evenings for the Falcons, picking up nine and eight kills respectively and leading the team in digs with 12 and 14 each. Garcia also had 12 digs and Harris and Schindler came up with key blocks on the defensive end, ending the game with four and three block assists respectively.