ONALASKA — Charley Casey took her best swing from the middle of the court, and Verona High School senior Allison Bostley anticipated it, rose above the net and slammed it back down on the other side of the net for a block.
Casey, a junior hitter for the Holmen volleyball team, turned her head away from the net, smiled and shook her head. The blocking attack that Bostley led frustrated the Vikings until they figured out a way around it. But doing so on Saturday made them WIAA Division 1 state qualifiers for the first time since 2021.
Sixth-seeded Holmen (24-9) pulled back on the power and shifted toward tip placement as its match against fourth-seeded Verona progressed and ended up leaving Charles Deeth Fieldhouse with a 15-25, 27-25, 25-22, 19-25, 15-9 victory over the Wildcats.
“We decided to throw some more tips in,” Holmen coach Nicky Rose said. “We said we wanted to extend plays, and when we didn’t, we were getting blocked.
“To extend the plays the way we wanted to, we had to mix up our shots to continue the rallies. It was a good gameplan, and they executed it.”
The Vikings will play in the state tournament for the second time in program history and will be one of eight seeded teams in the bracket. Division 1 quarterfinal matches are played at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
The Wildcats beat top-seeded Middleton in the sectional semifinals and challenged Holmen with a number of powerful hitters at the net. But those hitters may not have anticipated the defensive abilities of Casey and junior teammate Macy Kline.
Kline had 39 digs and Casey 24 as the Vikings made Verona reset its offense repeatedly after launching shots that most teams would have trouble returning.
“Our whole defense was just amazing,” Kline said. “Anywhere they hit the ball, we put it back up, and it’s hard to find a place to go when we’re as consistent as we were.”
Casey also led the team with 18 kills. Sophomore Moira Linse added 12, and junior Hadley Teff had five to go with a team-high five blocks. Juniors Makenna McHugh (22) and Sadie Mayer (19) combined for 41 assists.
McHugh also had one of the biggest digs of the match when she made a diving save on a ball near the line by the umpire’s chair in the third set. Keeping that ball alive allowed Holmen to finish that set off at 25-22.
But the talk after the match centered on the adjustments made in offensive approach.
“I think we’re really good at making adjustments on the court,” Linse said. “Once we made those adjustments and they worked, we just kept going with it.”
The fifth set was tight until the Vikings put together a 4-1 run that gave them an 8-4 lead. Casey and Linse both had kills during that run, and Linse later followed with a tip that found the floor and gave Holmen a 9-6 lead.
Teff was also in on two blocks — one solo and one with Linse — down the stretch to allow the Vikings to win.
“We knew we needed every person on our team to win this, and we worked so hard on it,” Casey said. “Every point was going to count, so any point we didn’t get, we had to shake it off and get the next one.”
