South O’Brien moved to 2-0 in the War Eagle Conference by sweeping past Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn 3-0 September 5 at Paullina. This was the first home match for the Wolverines and they took advantage of it, improving to 2-5 on the season.
“What a fun night to watch volleyball!” exclaimed Wolverine head coach Amy Schmidt. “Our girls came out with fire in their eyes and really got after it. They were prepared from the beginning and used some information that the media provided to light that fire. Our focus was to prove to ourselves that we’re capable of playing so much better than what we have been playing and hats off to the girls because they did just that.
“Our serving was only 88 percent tonight but I will say that when we missed, we bounced back aggressively. Our serving pushed them out of system and that helped us as we were getting a lot of tipped, offspeed and free balls our way. I thought our passing was much improved and defensively, our kids covered the court well. They had a small number of kills that didn’t seem to hurt us all that bad as they were spread out instead of us giving up a run of points. During timeouts, we were able to talk about the small things that we needed to fix and I felt that the girls went out and executed. Staying aggressive offensively allowed us to push forward instead of allowing them to set up their offense.
“I can’t say enough about our girls for their efforts tonight. We came ready to play and finished strong. Taylor (Wulf), Ashlynn (Gunnerson) and Addi (Hedberg) all served well. Defensively, these three stepped up for us and kept a large majority of attacked balls in play. We continue to improve defensively at the net. Ashlynn is playing back to her style of play leading our hitters to have some success. It was just a great overall team effort.”
Wulf served 16-of-16 with a pair of aces. The team totaled 14 ace serves with Gunnerson supplying six, Abby Woodall three and Reese Farquhar two. Raegan Plagge led the attack with 10 kills while Wulf and Tori Schueller added six apiece. Gunnerson assisted on 22 of the team’s 27 kills. Plagge recorded a pair of block assists. Chloe Hustedt, Farquhar, Wulf and Schueller each assisted on a block.
South O’Brien Stats

Kills-Errors-Attempts (Kill Efficiency): Team 27-21-98 (.061), Taylor Wulf 6-1-11 (.455), Raegan Plagge 10-7-35 (.086), Chloe Hustedt 3-7-22 (-.182), Lindsey Einck 0-0-1 (.000), Reese Farquhar 2-0-9 (.222), Tori Schueller 6-6-20 (.000).
Assists: Ashlynn Gunnerson 22, Farquhar 3.
Digs: Team 60, Addison Hedberg 14, Wulf 12, Gunnerson 11, Farquhar 8, Abby Nelson 6, Hustedt 5, Plagge, Abby Woodall 2.
Blocks: Plagge 2 assists; Wulf, Hustedt, Farquhar, Schueller 1 assist.
Serving (Efficiency): Team 64-73 (.877) 14 aces, Wulf 16-16 (1.000) 2 aces, Plagge 0-2 (.000), Gunnerson 12-14 (.857) 6 aces, Hustedt 8-9 (.889) 1 ace, Hedberg 11-11 (1.000), Farquhar 8-11 (.727) 2 aces, Abby Woodall 9-10 (.900) 3 aces.