HOLMEN — A major difference between this season’s version of the Holmen High School volleyball and other recent editions was pretty obvious back in August.
The Vikings have built their success — a 96-18 record from 2020-2023 — on depth at the net and interchangeable options on the attack.
Holmen had six players with at least 100 kills on the team that qualified for the WIAA Division 1 state tournament — a first in program history — in 2021, five the next year and four while coming up one win short of another state tournament a year ago.
That balance didn’t appear eminent in August, but it arrived in full force as the Vikings started stringing together victories once again. It picked up steam as the months passed and is as big of a reason as any for their second appearance at the Resch Center in Green Bay begins tonight.
Juniors Charley Casey and Hadley Teff were proven commodities when this season began, but the progress of junior Brenna Schmidt and sophomore Moira Linse has played a big role in making the Vikings (24-9) state qualifiers once again.
“We knew this year that we’d have to develop some leadership, and the players knew that, too” Holmen coach Nicky Rose said. “We had one 10th-grader and a few juniors who were going to have to take on a lot more responsibility.
“Especially the second half of the season, they’ve really started to function as a team.”
That, of course, requires contribution from the entire lineup, but the visible difference has come when the ball moves from setters Makenna McHugh or Sadie Mayer — sometimes libero Macy Kline — toward the net.
The Vikings have four players averaging between 1.7 and 2.8 kills per set, and they have taken turns carrying the team on the way to Thursday night’s quarterfinal match against top-seeded and two-time defending champion Milwaukee DSHA (44-1). That match begins at 7:30 p.m.
Casey had 195 kills as a sophomore and has increased that number to 275. She has continued to be an effective player in the back row with more than 180 digs both last season and this season, but the boosted production does make her the team’s go-to more often than not.
Teff had 101 last season and is up to 195 this year. Rose has been impressed with the big block she provides as well as the velocity of her strikes and improved ability to tip and roll her shots to change up her attack.
Opponents knew they’d have to contend with regular attacks from them, but Linse has contributed 173 kills and Schmidt 141.
“We’ve had so many girls step up to the plate that it makes me emotional with how proud I am of every single one of them,” said Kline, who has helped that attack develop with her 485 digs for averages of 4.9 per set and 14.7 per match. “Without their mentality and the hard work they’ve done, we wouldn’t have the depth that we have right now.
“Everyone is pushing everyone else to be better.”
Schmidt had 17 kills in a regional championship win over Waunakee, and Linse contributed 12 — many of them at key moments — in Saturday’s win over Verona in the sectional finals.
“It’s been a lot of hours in the gym,” Linse said of the balance that has emerged. “We’ve tried some different lineups to see which players work where and who works well together. We’ve become so accustomed to each other, what we’re doing is pretty natural at this point.”
Performances like those make Holmen a more dangerous team, and that’s exactly how it feels with the roll it is on.
The Vikings, seeded eighth for the state tournament, were awarded a No. 6 seed for the regional, and that stirred something inside of them. Coaches and players thought they deserved better, and they went out and proved it by beating four teams from the Madison area.
“We fired up a little bit about that because we didn’t think we were a six,” Rose said. “That underdog status really got this team going, I think.”
Schmidt is one of two sisters following in the footsteps of siblings this week. Her sister, Mara, and Kline’s sister, Ellie, both played om the 2021 team that qualified to play at the Resch Center. Schmidt remembers watching the Vikings that year and hoping to get her chance to experience the same thing.
“I was in awe watching them play out there,” Schmidt said. “I was thinking in my mind how cool it would be to do that, and now we are.”
