Tri-County Area prep volleyball teams begin seasons
The prep volleyball regular season in the Tri-County Area began for both Fall Creek and Augusta last week.
The Beavers under new coach Alicia Bethke dropped a pair of matches in a triangular at Cadott by 2-0 scores to the host Hornets and Abbotstford. In their home debut as fans sat on the new bleachers in the gym they watched the Beavers struggle to 0-3 as they lost 25-7, 25-14, 25-15 to Durand-Arkansaw.
After a bad first game, AHS had some good moments in Games 2 and 3 as seniors Tatum Krueger, Aubrey Korger and Parker Waugh led them in kills and blocks. But Durand-Arkansaw veteran and tall line-up was too much as they were led in assists by senior Kaci Brunkow and in kills and blocks by seniors Addison Auth, Emma Hoyt, Sawyer Sabelko and Alexis DeLisi.
"They're not a good match-up for us right now with just three seniors on the team playing a new offense and developing our team chemistry," Bethke said. "But we showed a lot of improvement since the first game and from Tuesday so have we make sure that continues to be playing our best volleyball at the end of the season."
Fall Creek starts its regular season at 7-5. They went 5-2 at the Great River Sprawl in Onalaska Aug. 25-26. FC started 2-2 but won all three matches on the second day of the meet. The Crickets lost to Arcadia 25-22, 25-17, beat Ladysmith 25-15, 25-20; lost to La Crosse Central 25-23, 25-23; beat Iowa-Grant 25-8, 25-13; Fall Creek def. Stratford 20-25, 25-19, 15-11; beat Black River Falls 25-22, 25-20 and defeated Brookwood 25-15, 21-25, 15-5.
On Saturday, Aug. 31 the Crickets competed in the Marathon Invitational. Their big highlight was setter Grace Herrem getting her one thousandth dig in her four seasons with FCHS. Fall Creek defeated Spencer 25-20, 25-17 and Rib Lake 25-12, 25-19 but lost to Stratford twice 25-10 and 25-17 in pool play and 25-20 and 25-19 in the placing matches and also lost to Marathon 25-16, 16-25, 15-12.
Osseo-Fairchild and Eleva-Strum begin their seasons this week. O-F is at Cadott on Tuesday, Sept. 3 and E-S is at the Durand-Arkansaw Quad along with Fall Creek on Tuesday and competes at the Loyal Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 7.
