(Matt McCarthy/Daily News photo) FLORENCE JUNIOR LEAH Young prepares to serve in a WIAA Division 4 Regional semifinal match, at Niagara on Thursday night.

LAONA, Wis. — Accurate serving, strong front-row play along with very cohesive communication and court awareness powered Laona-Wabeno past Florence, 3-0, in a WIAA Division 4 volleyball regional championship Saturday night at Laona High School.

The Lady Rebels won the three sets 25-12, 25-12, 25-19 to advance to the sectional round Thursday night.

Right from the start of the opening set, L-W came out with strong serving and front-row hitting that had the LadyCats reeling. As the match wore on, Florence’s intensity picked up as they began digging up some of the Rebels’ well-placed hits.

The beginning of the second set was much of the same, as L-W got out to a 7-2 lead before the LadyCats began chipping away at the host team’s lead. With the score 10-4 Rebels, freshman Kamden Johnson took the ball for her serving turn and tightened the score to 10-8 Laona-Wabeno.

Rebels head coach Michelle Boor called a timeout to regroup her team and it worked, with L-W re-taking control of the tempo of the set. There was a long and exciting rally for the final point of the second set, with L-W taking the point on a kill from senior Elizabeth Krawze.

“Laona-Wabeno is tough; number 22, Elizabeth Krawze, is an incredible player,” Florence head coach Teresa Chrisman said. “Their (L-W) passing was on, so they got their setting where it needed to be.”

Krawze recorded her 1,500th career kill in the match, surpassing the 1,000 career kills mark earlier in the season, becoming the only player in Laona-Wabeno history to surpass the 1,000 milestone.

The margin of victory for the Rebels in the opening set and second set were the same, 13 points.

The final set was the most competitive of the three, with Florence scoring first and having the momentum in their favor for two-thirds of the set. The LadyCats got out to a 11-4 lead, with Morgan Tomczak, Tylie Fyvie and Isabella Millan diving on the floor to dig up balls and strong serving from Maddy Johnson, Kamden Johnson and Millan.

Unfortunately for Florence and the large number of fans who attended the match, the tide turned dramatically and the Rebels eventually tied the score at 17-17. After taking their first lead of the final set at 18-17, the Rebels stayed in control and went on the win by six points to clinch the regional championship.

“All in all, I am very proud of the tenacity of the girls and the way they took control of the third set early on the way that they did,” Chrisman said. “We played them so tough in the last set, but the first two sets, we simply got outplayed.

“What I can be glad about and point to is that I have nobody graduating off of this team. The girls are all juniors and younger, and the improvement we’ve had from the beginning of the season until now was fantastic. They have some confidence and believe in themselves now,” Chrisman added.

Both the Rebels and LadyCats are members of the Northern Lakes Conference, along with Division 3 Crandon, which was formidable this season. The head-and-shoulders-above-everyone-else best team in the NLC throughout the season was Three Lakes — the Rebels’ opponent in the sectional semifinal Thursday night.

“I made the girls watch Laona-Wabeno getting the trophy after the match. I told them ‘Watch this, remember it. Remember what it feels like to not get to do what they are doing right now.’ Hopefully the girls don’t forget this and build off of it,” Chrisman said.