Citizen Staff/James Wold
Waupun's Bridget Nickel (14) tries to split the block against Appleton Xavier's Lexi Thein (13) and Carlye Schuh (3) Saturday.
WRIGHTSTOWN — Top-ranked Waupun’s run to a ninth straight state volleyball tournament appearance came to a sudden and crushing halt Saturday night.
The crushing part was applied by fourth-ranked Appleton Xavier in a 25-16, 25-21, 25-19 sweep.
For the Warriors (42-8), it’s the first time since 2000 they will not make an appearance at state. Milwaukee Lutheran was the last team to defeat Waupun, knocking the Warriors off in a five-set sectional semifinal on Oct. 27, 2000.
“They have five good attackers,” Waupun coach Keith Milkowski said. “They just outplayed us tonight.”
Led by junior Lauren DeShaney’s double-double, the Hawks advanced to the state semifinals for the first time since 2006. The match was a reversal of last year’s sectional final, which Waupun swept 25-14, 30-28, 25-20.
“This team is loaded,” Xavier coach Guy DeShaney said. “Everyone can put it down. I’m so blessed to have this much talent.
“The goal for this group was to get back to this point. It’s an indescribable feeling. It’s the memory of a lifetime.”
Milkowski said there were things he saw during the season that eventually caught up to Waupun.
“There was just something always missing,” Milkowski said. “We needed a little something more.”
Waupun (42-8) had only a handful of leads the entire match — all in the first set.
Its last advantage came at 9-8 when Libby Bresser had a solo block.
The match was even at 12 before back-to-back kills from Lexi Thein sparked a 13-4 Hawks run to end the set.
Xavier wasted little time in set two. Long service runs from Emily and Erin Downey pushed Waupun into a 10-1 hole.
The Hawks got plenty of mileage out of avoiding Waupun’s all-state tandem of Bridget Nickel and Brandi Dolgner on serve. Poor serve receive by the Warriors forced them to run much of their offense out of system.
“We produced a lot on aggressive serves,” coach DeShaney said. “It happened to work out well tonight.”
“It caused us some problems,” Milkowski admitted. “We passed the ball badly off serve.”
Waupun tried to rally by going to Bresser and Jenell Larsen in the middle. The duo attacked the Hawks with slides and found holes in the Xavier defense.
Trailing 16-9, Bresser had three straight points with two blocks and a kill off a slide. The sophomore finished with seven kills and seven blocks.
Waupun cut the deficit down to 21-20 before consecutive kills from Carlye Schuh (10 kills) bumped the advantage up to three. The Warriors’ last chance ended with a service error on set point.
The third set was more of a back-and-forth affair as the Hawks narrowly held a 13-12 lead.
But Lauren DeShaney brought her game up another level, notching five of her match-high 20 kills on Xavier’s final 11 points. She also added 10 digs in the victory.
“I give them a lot of credit,” Milkowski said. “They out-aced us, out-blocked us and out-attacked us.”
Much of that credit should go to senior setter Emily Downey, who finished with 37 assists.
“Emily did a great job tonight getting the ball to the hitters,” coach DeShaney said. “She does an awesome job.”
Erin Downey added seven kills and 13 digs. Thein chipped in six kills and a match-high 18 digs for the Hawks.
Nickel finished with six kills and 15 digs while Dolgner added five kills and 16 digs in their final match.
Alexa Finstad finished with 19 assists, an indication of Waupun’s struggles to stay in system.
Xavier will face Sauk Prairie, who downed Madison Edgewood in four sets, Friday in a state semifinal.
XAVIER 3, WAUPUN 0
Waupun 16 21 19 - 0
Xavier 25 25 25 - 3
WAUPUN: Kills - Bresser 7, Nickel 6, Larsen 6, Dolgner 5. Assists - Finstad 19. Digs - Dolgner 16, Nickel 15. Blocks - Bresser 7, Finstad 3.
XAVIER: Kills - DeShaney 20, Schuh 10, Er. Downey 7, Thein 6. Assists - Em. Downey 37. Digs - Thein 18, DeShaney 10, Verbeten 9, Em. Downey 7, Schowalter 6. Aces - Schowalter 3.