By Jennifer Eisenbart
Sports Editor
The Catholic Central High School volleyball team is seeing no shortage of Division 1 teams in its early-season tournaments.
For the second week in a row, the Lady ’Toppers took to the road, this time traveling to Schofield and D.C. Everest to finish tied for third at the Everest Invite.
“Overall, I thought a third-place finish was a strong finish,” said coach MaeMae Oberhofer, whose squad is now 11-4 overall. “We’ve now gotten 15 games in before we go into conference play this week, which has given us a chance to do some work with a young lineup.”
It wasn’t a perfect weekend for the Lady ’Toppers. While the squad went 3-0 in pool play, they did fall to Wausau East in the semifinals – a team they had beaten in three games in pool play.
They also lost senior setter Kelly Gould to an injury for the second straight weekend, this time a rolled ankle. Oberhofer was a little disappointed with the loss to East, but felt the circumstances at that point lined up against her team.
“I was, but Kelly had gone down in the first crossover game, so that changes our lineup,” the coach said. She also added that five matches in a short period of time asked a lot of several players who are playing all six court rotations this year.
“That’s a lot of work,” Oberhofer added.
Senior Maggie Smith finished with a team-high 49 kills, while Megan Wadsworth added 40. Smith added 50 digs and Wadsworth a team-high 66 digs.
Both got praise from Oberhofer, as the coach said it was a strong performance by the two both offensively and defensively.
While Gould led the team with 74 assists, backup setter Brittany Martin finished with 23, and also had nine aces and 37 digs.
Senior libero Ali Wiemer added 63 digs.
“(She) is doing a nice job anchoring our team in serve receive and defense,” Oberhofer said.
The Lady ’Toppers open Midwest Classic Conference play today with a 7 p.m. match at St. Thomas More.
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