By Dan Truttschel
Sports Correspondent
The day-long Badger Invitational Saturday wasn’t always smooth sailing for the Big Foot volleyball squad.
But the end result was all that mattered – and for the Chiefs, that meant a first-place trophy.
Big Foot won all five of its matches, including a three-set victory over the host Badgers, to bring home the title. Big Foot, which hosted Palmyra-Eagle Tuesday night, improved to 27-2-1 overall.
Results from the Rock Valley Conference matchup with the Panthers were unavailable by press time.
“We didn’t have our best five matches (Saturday), but as the competition improved, so did our play,” Big Foot coach Jen Koplitz said. “We are still working on eliminating our errors.”
Big Foot, ranked sixth in the latest Division 2 poll, earned victories over Ozaukee (25-8, 25-12), Williams Bay (25-12, 25-9), Elkhorn (25-20, 25-20), Jefferson (25-18, 21-25, 16-14) and Badger (25-18, 20-25, 15-5).
The match against Jefferson may have been a preview of things to come, Koplitz said, as the teams are in the same sectional bracket for the post-season tournament.
“The Jefferson win was a tough one,” she said. “We made it a lot harder on ourselves than we needed to. It was an important win for us since we are in the same sectional.”
Koplitz said her team fixed some of the mistakes it made against Jefferson and before it battled the Badgers.
“The difference between Jefferson and playing Badger is that we eliminated our unforced errors,” she said. “Badger is a strong team. We did a good job exposing their weaknesses and holes on the court.
“Mikaela Lagerhausen and Kennedy Hehr blocked well against Badger and didn’t give their offense a chance. Mackenzie Long was strong defensively for us.”
Statistical leaders for the day included Amy Schryver with 56 kills, 12 digs and seven aces; Long with 10 aces and 62 digs; Hehr with 25 kills, 28 digs and three aces; Ally Mazur with 88 assists and eight digs; Lagerhausen with four kills and five aces; Kristen Glade with six digs; and Rachel Heidenreich with seven digs.
Prior to the tournament, the Chiefs rolled to a three-set RVC win Sept. 26 over visiting Brodhead. Big Foot posted wins of 25-22, 25-17, 25-13 to blank the Cardinals.
Leading the way were Schryver with 15 kills and 10 digs; Lagerhausen with 13 kills and three aces; Hehr with seven kills and 12 digs; Mazur with three aces and 32 assists; Long with 11 digs; and Heidenreich with 11 digs.
Big tourney approaching
The Chiefs were back in action Thursday night with a road RVC matchup at Beloit Turner, but Koplitz said she and her team also have one eye on a trip to the always-challenging Westosha Smash Tournament in two weeks.
That will tell a lot about where the Chiefs can end up by the time 2013 comes to a close, she said.
“There, we will see the best competition of the year,” Koplitz said. “We really need to focus on being fundamentally sound. We can play with the best when control our side (of the net).”
