Prep volleyball: Chippewa Falls gets payback, leg up in Big Rivers with win over River Falls
Sep. 2—CHIPPEWA FALLS — After coming up just short to River Falls in the Big Rivers and the sectional finals last year, there was no shortage of motivation for the Chippewa Falls volleyball team on Thursday night.
The Cardinals earned some payback and got a leg up in the conference race with a 3-1 victory over the Wildcats at Chi-Hi.
"Right now we play the best if we have a lot of energy, and we've been focusing on that," Chippewa Falls senior Maddy Bauer said. "We've been changing our practices so that we celebrate more. You probably saw a lot of shouting and screaming, jacked up, and that's how we play our best. So we been working on that really hard."
The Cardinals won the first two sets 25-19, but then dropped the third 25-22, before going 25-21 to win the fourth.
The Wildcats appeared poised to force a fifth set midway through the fourth. They had been steadily chipping away at the Cardinals for much of the set and trailed 23-21 when the Cardinals blasted a kill shot down into the middle of their court to make it a 24-21 game and later clinch the match.
Cardinals head coach Luke Heidtke likened the upcoming season to a long journey.
"This is just one stop on the journey," Heidtke said. "We challenged them right away, and that can be really fun. But, this is our train and this was just one stop and we're going to play as hard as we can. But we've got to keep going and see the rest of season."
He also said he feels like the girls are giving them good performances and they haven't really missed the play.
The Chippewa Falls team's energy was visible from the outset, with 14 kills accumulated in the first set, 8 more in the second, 11 in the third, and 13 in the fourth.
Both Heidtke and Bauer said after the contest that the team is trying to maintain the mentality of playing one game, or one point at a time. Bauer explained, "We are going to celebrate tonight, but tomorrow it's always going to be a next-day mentality for us."
The Thursday night contest was the first Big Rivers matchup of 2022 for either team.
Chippewa Falls 3, River Falls 1
Chippewa Falls def. River Falls 25-19, 25-19, 22-25, 25-21.
Chippewa Falls leaders: Paige Steinmetz 18 kills and 12 digs, Sami Perlberg 10 kills and 29 digs, Maddie Hunt 10 kills, Sophie Robinson 8 kills and 21 digs, Mykle Buhrow 20 digs, Maddy Bauer 39 assists.
