Lady Timberwolves advance to state tournament
By Ted Pennekamp
The top seeded Lady Timberwolves of River Ridge took down top seeded Hillsboro, three sets to one, to win their first trip to state for volleyball in its program history.
Bloomington had a volleyball team go to state back in the 1970s.
The scores of the games Saturday night in Royall were 25-12, 25-15, 19-25 and 25-9. River Ridge improved to 24-0 with the victory. The four-game win was the first time this season that the team lost a game. All other matches have been sweeps.
The Lady Wolves advanced to the Division 4 state semifinals Friday at the Resch Center in Green Bay where they will take on top-seeded Clayton at 10 a.m. If River Ridge defeats Clayton, they will play in the championship match on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 9 a.m.
Skylar White led the team with 22 kills, 5 blocks and 9 digs. Taylor Langmeier had 16 kills, 1 block, 14 digs, and 2 ace serves. Jaci Williams contributed 7 kills. Verity Johnson had a whopping 40 assists and 30 digs. Faith Schier had an astounding 37 digs for the match. Jordyn Vogt had 2 ace serves and 5 digs. McKenzie Graf had 3 digs, 2 blocks, and 2 kills. Rylee Zinkle added 4 digs and 3 kills.
In 2011, the Wolves’ volleyball team made it to the sectional final and were beaten by Hillsboro.
“This was an incredible rematch and a game we were really hoping to get to since the beginning of the season,” said River Ridge Coach Dianne Langmeier. “I am so proud of these girls, my varsity assistant and volunteer coaches, and so happy for all the girls’ parents and families. This has been a dream for these girls for quite some time and they have put in the time and effort to make it a reality! The tremendous outpouring of support, not only from River Ridge, but all throughout Southwestern Wisconsin, has just been unbelievable and we are very grateful to everyone!”
River Ridge got to the sectional final versus Hillsboro by beating Iowa Grant in Belmont on Thursday night.
Top seeded River Ridge swept sixth seeded Iowa Grant three games to none in the Division 4 volleyball sectional semifinal. The juggernaut River Ridge team won by scores of 25-19, 25-18 and 25-15. The team started game one a bit slow and were being pushed by Iowa Grant but then seemed to wake up and take control.
The Lady Timberwolves improved to 23-0 on the season in their defeat of Iowa Grant.
Kills: Taylor Langmeier-17, Skylar White-11, Jaci Williams-8
Blocks: Skylar White-4, Taylor Langmeier-1, Chloe Stagman-1
Ace serves: Jaci Williams-1, Taylor Langmeier-1
Digs: Faith Schier-21, Skylar White-20, Verity Johnson-18
Assists: Verity Johnson-27, Jaci Williams-4
“The girls played a hard game against a very talented Iowa Grant team,” said River Ridge Coach Dianne Langmeier. “We had some key blocks from Skylar in the second game which really helped us to get the momentum going our way! Jaci Williams had a great night with 8 spikes, one of her best nights hitting this year. Faith Schier led the team in digs but our other passers dug up a lot of balls too! This helped our setter, Verity Johnson, get the ball set up to our hitters! Taylor had a nice game with 17 kills and getting around their tough blockers.”