River Ridge volleyball
River Ridge’s Sammy Steiger steers the ball away from Madison Kuhl of Southwestern Thursday night at North Crawford High School in the sectional semifinal. (Photos by Ted Pennekamp)
Taylor Langmeier reaches back to hit the ball to the Southwestern side Thursday night.
Bridgette Myers gets ready to smash the ball down the line as teammates Sydney Bloom and Sierra Schier (32) prepare for a possible return.
Taylor Langmeier bumps the ball to the front line.
Southwestern
stops River Ridge
By Ted Pennekamp
In a battle of number one seeds, Southwestern defeated River Ridge three games to none in a Division 4 sectional semifinal volleyball match at North Crawford High School Thursday night.
Southwestern won the match by scores of 25-13, 25-18 and 25-9 to end River Ridge’s season.
River Ridge won the Six Rivers West Conference championship and were also the regional champions.
“We were clearly out-powered at the net, and the girls did all they could to try to stop their (Southwestern’s) ferocious serves and spikes,” said River Ridge Coach Dianne Langmeier. “We were able to get a few good rallies going, but the scores didn’t reflect that, unfortunately. I was proud of how the girls kept their chins up and played with heart all the way through the match. It was a great season for us. Our final record was 22-2-1, and we were ranked sixth in the state of Wisconsin in the final week by the Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association. It is unfortunate that we had to meet up with the Number 2 ranked Southwestern Wildcats. We are grateful that we got Conference and Regional Champs for back to back seasons! With Bridgette Myers spraining her ankle in the first tournament match, we are lucky, she was able to return to all the matches after that. For her to play as well as she did after such a bad sprain, it is a testament to her toughness! The seniors were awesome leaders and really worked hard in the off season to help us get the success we had this year. I would like to thank them whole heartedly for that!”
In the game against Southwestern, Bridgette Myers had 8 kills, 10 digs, and 3 assists. Taylor Langmeier added 5 kills, 5 assists, and 3 digs. Amber Patterson had one solo block and one ace serve. Sydney Bloom had 16 digs and one ace serve. Sierra Schier had 9 digs. Sam Steiger chipped in one ace serve.
