MADISON, WISC. - Despite a small hiccup in the third set Wednesday inside
H. Douglas Redsten Gymnasium, the highest seed in the
2023 NJCAA Region 4 Division II Midwest District B Tournament took care of business as Madison College defeated Bryant & Stratton College with a 3-1 decision in the quarterfinals. The #2-seeded WolfPack used set scores of 25-14, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22 to eliminate the #15-seeded Bobcats in their first-ever postseason meeting. The victory gives the Pack an 8-1 mark all-time against their in-state foes, including a pair of wins this season and six consecutive. Madison College moves on to Saturday's semifinals and will play another in-state rival, Milwaukee Area Technical College.
Madison College never trailed in the opening set thanks to 16 kills and a ridiculous .556 hitting efficiency. A 4-0 keyed by a kill and an ace from sophomore
Sophia Venne pushed the score to 10-4, and an ever better 5-0 surge late in the set turned a four-point lead into a 20-11 differential thanks to four kills by freshman
Courtney Gorum.
The second set saw visiting Bryant & Stratton College (7-18) take an early 3-2 lead, but back-to-back
Addyson McHugh kills put the WolfPack in front. Tied at 7-7, Madison College claimed 14 of the next 19 points to take a commanding 21-12 advantage.
Hope Hesselberg, a freshman from Lodi, Wisconsin, triggered the push with three consecutive aces, part of 11 on the night for the home team.
Kendall Weisensel, who holds the Madison College record for career aces, added to her total with another to give the Pack the nine-point cushion. Freshman
Amber Horn ended the set with a kill.
Playing with their backs against the wall and their season on the line, the Bobcats came out with their best effort of the night in the third set, jumping out to an 8-3 lead that forced a time out by coach
Mallory Stone. Trailing by six at 21-15, Madison College began to claw back, and used consecutive aces from Weisensel to get within 22-21 before BSC won three of the final four points to force a fourth set.
Early hitting and serving errors for the Bobcats handed the Pack a 3-0 edge, however, Bryant & Stratton College rallied for a 5-4 lead. The teams went back-and-forth until BSC broke a 13-13 tie with a 4-0 run. McHugh pounded two more kills on consecutive points to regain some life for the WolfPack, who then turned to their top hitter to close things out. Down 22-19, Gorum followed a
Gabby Hack kill with three kills over the next five points to rally Madison College to a three-point set win.
Gorum, who ranks tenth in the nation in kills per set at 3.97, racked up a team-high 19 kills and hit at a .486 clip. The native of Chesapeake, Virginia, moved into second place on the single-season kills list at Madison College with 417. Gorum also tallied five digs, two assists, two blocks, and one ace.
McHugh, an outside hitter and middle blocker from Spring Grove, Minnesota, posted 14 kills on a team-high .500 efficiency that marks her second-highest percentage of the season. She now boasts a dozen matches with double-digit kills.
Hesselberg, a first year setter, recorded career-bests with 33 assists and four aces. Sophomore
Daryn Schaefer added 18 assists. Weisensel matched Hesselberg with four aces and now sits at 143 for her career. The libero from Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, was also tops with 18 digs.
For the match, Madison College finished with 54 kills and a .336 attack percentage, numbers that rank tied for third and sixth, respectively, in a single match this season. The Pack averaged 13.5 kills per set, while also producing six blocks and 36 digs on the defensive side of the net.
Up Next:
Madison College (22-9), playing in it's first Region 4 Division II Tournament, is on to the semifinals and will meet #7-seed Milwaukee Area Technical College on Saturday, November 4 at 4:00 p.m. The WolfPack recently swept the Stormers
3-0 on October 24 to run their consecutive match win streak over their rival to 40. The Pack leads the all-time series by a 94-29-3 margin. MATC-Milwaukee advanced with a 3-2 win over #10-seeded College of Lake County. Madison College's
H. Douglas Redsten Gymnasium will host the remainder of the
Region 4 Division II Midwest District A & B Tournaments with four semifinal matches on Saturday and two championship matches on Sunday.
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