By Jed Buelow
Co-Editor, Sports, Nature Editor
The chant “Talk it over” rained down from a packed Tomahawk student section as Lakeland called a timeout after giving up their lead Tuesday in the Hatchet home opener.
A few minutes earlier after Tomahawk took a timeout of their own in set one after falling behind 2-6, senior Morgan Ernst stepped to the serve line, and with some impressive help from her teammates at the net, slowly began to chip away at the deficit. Falling behind 11-6 the T-birds were forced to call the timeout, but the damage had already been done, as Ernst rattled off 10 unanswered points to put Tomahawk ahead 12-6.
“I just told them to calm down and that they have to play their game,” said Hatchet head coach Lauren Pfeiffer of the early timeout that proved a big turning point in the game. “If they play Tomahawk volleyball, everything else will fall into place.”
Play Tomahawk volleyball they did. And everything did indeed fall into place, as Tomahawk battled back to take the first set 25-12. Lakeland had no answer or way around the dominant performance the Lady Hatchets’ had at the net all night.
Tomahawk would keep their collective foot on the gas in game two as they scored the 25-20 win before dropping the hatchet on the T-birds by a 25-20 score to get the three-game sweep.
“I think the game went well. I was happy everyone was able to get in,” coach Pfeiffer said. “I still think there are spots where we need improvement, but the more we play, that will come.”
Natalie Zastrow led the Hatchets with 7 kills, Richelle Swan had 14 assists and M. Ernst got the most digs with 12.
The win improved Tomahawk’s record to 2-0 in the Great Northern Conference and 7-7 overall.
Over the weekend Tomahawk traveled to Merrill for a 10-team invite where they dropped a pair including a 2-0 loss to Bay Port and dropped their final game of the weekend to Merrill.
Hanse and K. Pierce led the team in kills with 19 and 15 apiece, respectively. Morgan Ernst had 30 digs, Megan Scholz blocked seven, N. Zastrow had 7 aces and R. Swan led the team in assists with 38.
After a week off, the Hatchets will be back in action this Saturday, Sept. 21 as they travel to Antigo for a GNC Conference Meet that begins at 10 a.m. Then on Tuesday, Sept. 24, Tomahawk volleyball travels to Medford for a conference tilt that begins with JV/JV2 at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. with Varsity to follow at 7 p.m.