Laconia and St. Mary's Springs volleyball both played in the 12-team invitational at Lake Country Lutheran on Saturday.
The Spartans went 3-1 and won the silver bracket. The Ledgers went 1-3 and took fourth in the same bracket as their Flyway rivals.
Laconia's loss was a tight match against Division 2 Notre Dame, which the Spartans lost 25-19, 20-25, 15-13. The Tritons have a losing record on the season but play mostly D1 competition.
"We played a lot of really solid ball," Wiese said. "[Notre Dame] wasn't scared of us. They've already seen a fast offense, they've already seen aggressive hitters, so it was nice to see a team that didn't just fall and have the girls come back and fight.
"I thought our girls did a really good job of coming back and fighting."
Senior Mariska Kees led Laconia with 14 assists against Notre Dame. Eva Engel and Tierney Madigan each had seven kills.
Wiese said she was pleased with how Kees ran the offense when she was the setter.
"She gets all of our players involved and I think she does a good job of quickening up our offense," Wiese said. "Our outsides really like to run their shoots, and she puts out a good shoot ball for them. She's just really aggressive and isn't afraid to make mistakes."
The Spartans swept The Prairie School, 25-12, 25-13 to start the day. Their 1-1 performance in pool play sent them to the silver bracket, where they swept both Racine Lutheran (25-20, 25-14) and East Troy (25-15, 25-22).
Outside hitter Addi McCauley started to heat up in bracket play, for she had nine kills in each match. She led Laconia offensively both times.
Overall, the Spartans got double-digit kills from five different players. McCauley had 33, Engel had 23, Madigan had 17 while Payton and Finley Morgan had 11 and 10, respectively.
Wiese said Madigan has been working hard in practice to refine a few details in her attacks and she displayed it this weekend.
"Tierney played amazing today," Wiese said. "She tends to drop her elbow when she wants to hit a certain way. This week we really worked on reaching high and I think that showed today. She reached high and was slamming balls down."
Kees finished with 70 assists in the four matches, while sharing time with Pallen Kloetzke, who added 24 assists. Kees said spreading the ball around is key with the depth the team has offensively.
"[McCauley] is phenomenal," Kees said. "She can really put anything down and she adjusts really well. Eva really moves the ball around well and she knows how to hit shots. Tierney Madigan being a lefty has an approach that nobody else has because she can run the backwards slide.
"Finley has really embraced the role of trying new things... and Payton Morgan is phenomenal back there. I can give her any ball and she can put it down."
The Ledgers also went 1-1 in pool play with a sweep over Randolph (25-22, 25-23) and a loss to Oostburg in three sets (23-25. 25-14, 15-9) so they also went into the silver bracket.
Springs was on the other side of the bracket from Laconia and the Ledgers got swept by East Troy and then lost in three sets to Racine Lutheran.
PHOTO GALLERY: Springs & Laconia at Lake Country Lutheran Invite - 9/28/2024
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