Season review: Lady T-Bird volleyball soared for success

There were plenty of highlights in the Lakeland volleyball season that led the program to their best season win percentage in many years.

The Thunderbirds ended the season with a record of 18-11, their best season win percentage (.621) since at least 2008. They finished fourth out of seven teams in the Great Northern Conference (GNC) at 6-6. They won 23 sets and lost 18 in conference play.

“Overall for my first year coaching with the girls I had high expectations, and they exceeded them,” coach Taylor Bruhl said. “I was really proud of their hard work and effort that they put in each and every practice and every game. I think it was a success.”

Taylor’s version

Bruhl took over as head coach of the Thunderbirds in 2024. She guided Lakeland to their second straight season of at least 18 wins.

“A little nerve-wracking to be honest,” she said. “It was a lot to take on, and I didn’t want to fail the girls. I know they have a lot of changes and a lot of talent too so I wanted to make sure I could come in, kind of harness that talent and have a successful season.”

All-conference

Senior Stina Peterson was one of Lakeland’s go-to players offensively. She also proved to be one of their best defenders while playing at middle blocker.

The GNC coaches voted Peterson as a unanimous first team all-conference player, one of just three athletes to receive the honor. It’s the second straight year Lakeland has had a player selected unanimously to the first team — Meg Pfannerstill.

“Stina was our offensive leader, stat leader for most of our games,” Bruhl said. “She’s tall, she’s athletic, she’s played a lot of club volleyball, and she’s very focused. She was one of our two captains, senior captains this year, and she kept the team focused on the game, on winning, on having fun and cohesiveness on and off the court, that along with executing the plays.”

Peterson ranked second in the conference in both serving percentage and blocks. She committed just two service errors in 156 serves for a percentage of .987. She compiled 73 blocks in 41 sets (1.8 per game). All stats were from conference games.

Offensively, Peterson led Lakeland with 91 kills, averaging 2.2 kills per game. She had the sixth-most kills in conference play. In addition, she ranked fifth in the conference in attack percentage at .253.

“She took a lot of my feedback,” Bruhl said. “We worked on power tipping, controlled blocking, and she was able to take that, fine-tune things and become from a great player to an even greater player this season.”

Ava Evenhouse, a junior, gave Lakeland a strong one-two punch at middle blocker. She ranked first in attack percentage and blocks. She totaled 66 kills in 150 total attacks, a percentage of .313. She delivered 94 blocks and finished second team all-conference.

“Tall, very athletic and just very fun,” Bruhl said. “She is someone who keeps her head high throughout the game and tries to better every single ball. She never gets down on herself, and she never gets down on whoever the setter was who gave her the ball which made something really special stand out about her —any time that ball went to her she was trying to better it, and it showed in the stats of playing smarter, not harder sometimes.”

Cale Quade, a senior, stood out this season on her way to honorable mention all-conference. She ranked third in the conference with 1.4 blocks per game. Playing from the right side, she was third on Lakeland with 52 kills.

“Cale was mostly our right side because she was left handed, but all of our other hitters were pretty interchangeable from pin to pin,” Bruhl said. “Which again, made us a little more versatile on what we were needing when we needed it.”

Junior libero Greta Johnson was named honorable mention all-conference. She ranked second in the GNC in digs per game at 4.2. She led Lakeland with 171 digs and tied for first (Peterson) with 17 aces on the team.

Back row

In addition to Johnson, seniors Kieran Petrie and Karlin Williams protected Lakeland’s court. 

Petrie played a versatile role for the Thunderbirds on offense and defense. She ranked third on the team in digs (68) and fifth in kills (42). She added 23 assisted blocks and 15 aces.

“Kieran was our other senior captain,” Bruhl said. “She didn’t always lead stat-wise in certain columns. She was a great utility player. There were certain games that she was our ace leader, certain games that she was our dig leader, certain games where she got a key critical kill, certain games that she didn’t play in the front row at all. She received MVP (Most Valuable Player) for our squad this year because she had the heart and the soul of the volleyball game. She was always the one asking me, ‘What can we do better, what can we change to improve, to get out of a rut,’ and her energy is like the glue of the court, and it’s a noticeable difference in energy when she’s off the floor.”

Williams totaled 114 digs, second on the team, and 16 aces, third most on Lakeland. 

“(Greta and Karlin) have great passing form,” Bruhl said. “I would always use them for examples in practice on what to do. They stay low, they keep their head down, they have a solid platform, and they’re very good at reading the ball. I could rely on them in serve receive and in defense, and it was just very peaceful for me as a coach just to give them subtle reminders throughout the game but know that they know what to do and how to get the next ball if they missed it.”

Setter depth

The Thunderbirds rotated three setters this season in juniors Tayiah Bauman and Bryn Warchol and sophomore Allyson Seaberg. All three setters recorded at least 80 assists.

“It was hard. Early on in tryouts it just kind of would depend on the day who was standing out in my eyes, and I couldn’t really settle on two,” Bruhl said. “I know that takes away some playing time from one of the setters inevitably at each game, but I just couldn’t not have one of them on my squad because they still continued to ebb and flow with what we needed with each game. They all have great serves.”

Warchol led Lakeland with 98 assists followed by Seaberg with 96. Bauman totaled 84 assists.

“Tayiah has confidence on the court,” Bruhl said. “She really clicks with some of our bigger hitters like Stina and Ava. She’s out there when we need her. Bryn pulls out a lot of effort. She really harnessed her setting this year. She got our Most Improved Player award. Allyson is just smart, and she’s very quick. It’s hard to put one of those ranking higher than the other so it was just based on practicing, previous games on who was going to go out there, and when one struggled, we had that flexibility to switch up our setters.”

Attack power

Lakeland showcased a number of outside hitters this season. Junior Marlee Strasburg contributed 45 kills, fourth on the team. Her 0.9 blocks per game ranked fourth in the conference. She had 36 blocks in 38 sets played.

Juniors Sloane Timmerman (38 kills) and Lexi Gindorff (25) added to Lakeland’s depth.

“We were versatile there. Sloane is a nice tall player, she’s got a nice tip down the line that got us a lot of points against teams when we needed it,” Bruhl said. “Lexi has a powerful swing, so does Mckaelynn (Schettino). When they both would come in, they bring a lot of power and just kind of give the team something else to look at. Marlee — she’s just solid, very steady through and through. When she gets ahold of the ball, she also has a lot of power, and then she can switch up and also get us a lot of points with her tipping. So again, it’s good to have that versatility because there’s many games that we needed to switch something, and that was the switch that we would need.”

Positive start

The Thunderbirds soared in their first tournaments of the season. They went 4-3 at the Menomonie Volleyball Sprawl Aug. 30-31 at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. They made it to the championship bracket where they finished tied for 13th out of 40 teams. In comparison, they finished tied for 35th last year.

“That was so much fun,” Bruhl said. “Sprawl is a hard tournament, and it’s hard right away in the beginning of the season. It’s fun, we get to travel, we get a hotel room, so I really wanted us to come out and see our potential. It was still at a time where we were constantly mixing up the lineup and again, the girls just embraced their role, had fun with it, and we had a lot of success. It really gave us a hot start to the season with a glimpse of what our potential was.”

The following weekend, the Thunderbirds went 5-0 and won the Oredocker Battle of the Bay Invite in Ashland on Sept. 7. 

“Early morning, long road trip, and we went in, and we didn’t drop a game all day,” Bruhl said. “(It was) fun to have confidence. We were able to try out new things, different tandem plays, different setters, hitting in different spots because we did have that high authority coming into the gym and again, it just makes it even more fun to have that sprinkle on top of trying out new things and still having success.”

Taking down Tomahawk

For the first time in four years, the Thunderbirds beat the Hatchets. Lakeland defeated Tomahawk 3-0 on Sept. 24 in Tomahawk. Later in the season on Oct. 12, the Thunderbirds beat the Hatchets again, 3-0, to complete the season sweep.

“That was awesome,” Bruhl said. “I didn’t know going in to playing them that we hadn’t beat them in a while, and our girls went in with so much confidence — that’s why it was surprising to hear that we haven’t done that in a while. They went in, they wanted to be efficient. I would say we played some of our best volleyball against Tomahawk. We just came in with confidence, executed and made it efficient.”

Playoff upset

The Thunderbirds entered the playoffs as the No. 9 seed. They traveled to Seymour for a WIAA Division 2 regional quarterfinal game on Oct. 22. Lakeland defeated the eighth-seeded Thunder 3-1 (25-15, 23-25, 25-23, 25-17) to pull off the small upset.

“I think I fired them up a little bit seeing that I was personally upset with our seed ranking because I battled for seventh and eighth place, and I did not even get a chance,” Bruhl said. “Everyone else agreed that we should have been the lower seed. And these girls are just awesome, and I think they kind of took a little bit of the chip on my shoulder and carried that in. I’m like, ‘We have to be on the road because we got the lower seed. Go in there and show them that we should have been the higher seed playing at home.’ So I honestly think they had a little attitude going into it wanting to show that we are a good team, and that we should be respected. It was fun, play hard, and it was a good battle. I think it was probably their best defense that we played all year against Seymour.”

Two days, later Lakeland played top-seeded Oconto Falls. The Thunderbirds stole a game, but the Panthers ended Lakeland’s season for the second time in as many years. 

First-set spark

Lakeland won the first set in 17 of their 29 matches this season. The Thunderbirds were a perfect 17-0 when they won the first set. Of those 17 wins, 14 were sweeps.

“It shows that if we come out with confidence, we can carry that through and win the matches, but if we come out a little tentative around our heels, it sounds like we lose,” Bruhl said.

The only time Lakeland found victory when they didn’t win the first game came at Rib Lake on Oct. 10. The Thunderbirds went on to win in five sets, their only match this season that went five games.

Fourth-set blues

Teams had a tough time sweeping the Thunderbirds. In best-three-out-of-five matches, the Thunderbirds lost 3-0 just once — Mosinee on Sept. 21.

Of Lakeland’s eight losses in best-three-out-of-five matches, seven of them came in four games. The Thunderbirds won the fourth set just twice all season. Both came in four-set victories over D.C. Everest on Sept. 12 and the playoff upset win over Seymour. 

“I think that comes back down to mental toughness and not necessarily volleyball skills,” Bruhl said. “I think it can relate to both losing the first set and then losing the fourth set where it feels like a grind. You feel like you’re behind, and that pressure increases, and you feel like the points matter more because you’re in jeopardy of losing, and that’s something I want to try to improve for next year is just having that mental toughness that we can win and not to play down or play tentative because that’s when errors arise because you’re trying to be conservative, you’re trying to overthink instead of just playing and trusting the flow of the game.”

Next year

The Thunderbirds will graduate five players, including all-conference athletes Peterson and Quade. 

In specific, it won’t be easy to replace the production of Peterson.

“That middle spot is still kind of a question mark. We don’t have a ton of middles in our program that are confident so Stina’s definitely going to be a big loss there,” Bruhl said. “But there are some standouts on JV that are definitely going to help fill some of those other voids and also hoping that we have a vocal leader that stands out.”

However, Lakeland can bring back a number of starters all over the court. Middle blocker Evenhouse and libero Johnson can return for their senior years. 

“Ava is probably our loudest one on the team now after losing Stina, Kieran and Cale, but those are three pretty vocal leaders so I’m hoping someone is going to rise to the occasion with that,” Bruhl said.

Lakeland can keep the continuity of their setters with the return of Bauman, Seaberg and Warchol. Strasburg, Timmerman and Gindorff are options on the outside for Lakeland next year. 

“I think next year we’re going to see significant growth,” Bruhl said. “I don’t think we’re hitting a plateau or going to decrease by any means. I have a feel for the girls’ play, mindset and effort — also a feel for our conference and what to look for. I just think a generalized preparedness will help us get better.”

The Thunderbirds will look to shore up their back row with the graduation of Petrie and Williams. 

“Overall for next year, I hope to creep up a spot or two in our conference,” Bruhl said. “We’ve got Merrill joining next year and then also just keep the winning.”

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].