While the journey wasn’t perfect, the record is.
After seven conference games, the Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School volleyball team has a perfect 7-0 record in the Central Wisconsin Conference-8 as the team prepares to host half of the CWC-8 tournament Saturday.
That is in part because of the most surprising attribute of the young team: an ability to come from behind to pull out wins.
“When we’re down — we kind of play like a roller coaster — we still pull it out and win in the end,” senior captain Taylor Bushman said.
Taming that roller coaster — playing consistently — has been what the team, which includes two freshmen and two sophomore starters, has focused on this year.
“That’s been the big focus of the year,” coach Christine Nier said. “We talk about it every single game. I don’t know if that’s an age thing or if it’s just our team.”
With the conference tournament looming, the coach said the season has been what she expected.
“It’s a pretty strong team,” Nier said. “I think I have five out of the seven that play year-round, and it totally shows.”
The coach was worried about how the two freshmen would adapt to play on the varsity level.
Madison Bushman, Taylor Bushman’s younger sister, became the team’s setter, directing most of the offense for the Chargers.
“We weren’t sure if she could handle that, but she has,” Nier said. “She’s a very smart girl.”
Taylor Nier, an outside hitter and the younger of the coach’s two daughters on the team, has made it hard for teams to focus on one hitter, with older sister Micah Nier, Taylor Bushman and Hannah Buntrock all producing plenty of kills from the hitting positions.
“(Taylor Nier) ended up being an impact player, one of my top three in stats in hitting,” the coach said. “That’s made a huge difference. That’s the difference between our team and some other teams; we don’t have just one good hitter, we have four.”
Managing the sister dynamic has been part of the job for coach Nier.
“The two sets of sisters generally help each other,” Christine Nier said. “These four girls have grown up together as well. Sometimes it feels like I’m not really the coach, I’m the mom of the team.”
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