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Florence reached the semifinals of Saturday’s Escanaba Invitational volleyball tournament, posting 2-0 wins Saturday over Menominee, Escanaba, Norway and Newberry.
The LadyCats, the lone Wisconsin team, bowed in the semifinals to Gwinn, 25-23, 25-21.
“In all honesty, we ran out of gas,” said Florence coach Teresa Chrisman, who saw her team’s overall record climb to 28-6 with a 4-1 tourney performance. Forest Park defeated Gwinn in the championship match.
The LadyCats were coming off a 3-0 loss at Northern Lakes Conference leader Three Lakes on Thursday.
“It was a real battle all night,” Chrisman said. “If the sets were to 20, we would have won every one. Volleyball is such a game of momentum and we just couldn’t finish.”
The LadyCats will now turn to Homecoming at Florence.
“With no football team it’s a little different this year,” Chrisman noted. “The Homecoming game is our volleyball game Thursday against Crandon. It will be a ‘pink’ affair in honor of cancer awareness as well.”
Improvements in blocking will be a focus for Florence going forward, Chrisman said.
“Time and again that tends to be the game-changer in these tight games,” she said. “Our hitters need to improve on shots around the block and just spreading the ball more offensively,” she added. “But (it’s) all things we can work on. This team is very fun to be around and really do have genuine friendships.”
Stats for Three Lakes/Escanaba tournament combined:
Kelsi Chrisman, 12 aces, 59 kills, 49 assists, 42 digs, 4 blocks
Miley VanDenHeuvel, 6 aces, 57 kills, 13 assists, 63 digs, 6 blocks
Naomi Millan, 9 aces, 30 kills, 3 assists, 4 blocks, 29 digs
Emily Wolske, 4 aces, 7 kills, 1 assist, 4 blocks
Julia Murrow, 1 ace, 1 kill, 73 assists, 1 block, 37 digs
Addison Franz, 3 kills, 2 assists, 8 blocks, 9 digs
Taylor Pauley, 6 aces, 6 assists, 24 digs
Sienna Schmoll, 4 digs
Quinn Cassidy, 5 digs
Leah Baker, 1 kill, 4 blocks, 4 digs