Season ends against Auburndale

Oriole volleyball is over for now, but what a season it was.

Taking Necedah 3-0 Tuesday before falling to Auburndale in like fashion days later, the Oriole varsity volleyball team had quite the season. Starting with a 3-0 win over Elk Mound at home, the Oriole spikers headed to UW-Stout, there they took wins against Clayton, Prescott, North Crawford, and Osceola, finishing 11th out of 40 teams in their first participation at Stout. Incoming head coach Karley Wiensch said the team had been playing together for a while.

“This senior class has played together for a long time,” she said after the Sprawl outcome.

“They bring all positivity and determination to every practice and game.”

Following the UW-Stout Sprawl, it was off to Greenwood, where the varsity took away six wins and zero losses for the day, or a 6-0 match record.

Off next to Merrill, the team took second place, as Coach Wiensch said the team was starting to trust each other.

"At the tournament, I felt like the girls were starting to gel and trust each other,” she said at the time. “They were playing as a team and found ways to score when we were down in games.” From Merrill, it was Bloomer and Thorp, and Medford.

Defeating Bloomer in an away match set, the Orioles shut out Thorp 3-0 at Stanely Sept. 13, and had another milestone to celebrate: Emily Brenner had made her 1,000th career kill, de- fined in volleyball as a play by the offense other wise unreturnable by the opponent. From Thorp, it was on to Medford, where the Orioles took wins against Three Lakes, Gilman, and Amery, falling only to Columbus Catholic. From there it was Fall Creek and Bloomer.

Hosting Fall Creek Sept. 27 before traveling to Bloomer Sept. 29, the Orioles varsity took wins over both, defeating Fall Creek 3-0 at home and Bloomer 3 – 2 away. From there it was on to Regis, Osseo-Fairchild, and the Somerset Invitational, all three with good outcomes. Following Somerset it was one to the Conference Championship, where the Orioles took a threeway tie with Bloomer and McDonnell Central, as Avery Vait, Emily Brenner, and Kayte Licht all made the All Conference listings. From there it was on to hosting Necedah at home, with Au burndale putting an end to the Oriole spikers extraordinary 2022-23 season. Coach Wiensch had closing season remarks and thoughts on next year following the loss.

“I am proud of the team that I had for my 1st year coaching,” she said. “I am proud of the women they have become on and off the court.

I thanked them for allowing me to come in their senior year and take over the program, without hesitation they were willing to put in the effort and work hard for their goals they set. I am saddened that I have to say goodbye to 10 seniors, we had a great run together but injuries late in the season did not help the situation. Looking forward to next year, I am hoping that a lot of the JV and C-team players will play traveling volleyball, so that they can play volleyball out- side of season and be able to build their confi dence that they are ready for next year and playing at the varsity level. It is not easy losing so many seniors that played key roles on this team, but we will regroup and work just as hard next year.”

Sierra Close goes for the kill.Photo by Heather Vait.