The last match for the Oconto Falls High School volleyball team’s seniors and their coach rushed by as undefeated East Troy swept the Panthers 3-0 in the WIAA Division 2 state semifinal Friday at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
Dawn Larsen, who is giving up her OFHS coaching duties after the spring softball season, said she was not sad after falling to the eventual state champion.
“I’m not sad about it being my last season,” Larsen said. “I mean, where else would I want to end it than at state? I’m still proud of them.”
And as much as the loss hurt, the coach said her team accomplished its one goal this season — making it to state.
“We still said ‘One Team, One Dream’ because this was the dream and we were here,” Larsen said.
The game also wrapped up the high school volleyball careers of seniors McKenna Larsen, the coach’s daughter and Bay Conference player of the year, Carly Lemke, Elizabeth Watzka and Rachael Winter.
East Troy (44-0), which also swept Madison Edgewood in the WIAA Division 2 championship Saturday, beat Oconto Falls (42-4) 25-21, 25-14, 25-15.
The Panthers built a 9-4 lead in the first set before service errors let East Troy catch up. The two teams remained knotted until 20-20, when East Troy took control.
“My assistant coaches are saying ‘what if,’ but I really just believe it took East Troy a while to warm up,” Larsen said. “They’re a phenomenal team, probably the best team we’ve faced all year, obviously.”
In the next two games, kills were hard to find for star hitters Lemke and McKenna Larsen, who were both held to 10 kills each. Larsen added nine assists and 10 digs. Watzka had 10 assists.
When balls did get by East Troy’s net players, the back row was able to dig most of Oconto Falls’ best shots.
“We hit the ball hard. They blocked well, they dug,” Dawn Larsen said. “Some of the balls that McKenna and Carly hit, holy man they dug them up.”
East Troy had 40 digs, 19 by senior libero Mykie Olsen. The Trojans kept Oconto Falls guessing on attacks: Myranda Dallas led with eight kills, while Bryzena Santos and M.E. Dodge each had seven and Katrina Santos added six more. Brittney Jakscht had 22 assists.
“They’re just a little bit more experienced,” Larsen said. “You look at their experience versus ours, their experience really prevailed.”
There was no doubt in Larsen’s mind Friday after the match that her team lost to a state champion.
“They’ll win it, and the girls will have a chance to say that they got beat by the Division 2 champs,” she said.
After the match there were plenty of tears and hugs between players and coaches.
“As a whole, I’ve never seen anybody on this team yell at one another,” Larsen said. “We’ve played other teams to get here, and when the going got tough other girls would scold other girls, and that never happened in the 40-some games we played. Kids were picking other kids up.”
Larsen coached the Panthers to eight conference titles, 10 regional titles and four state trips during her career, and finished with a 757-294 record.
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