WILLMAR -- Ridgewater moved one step closer to returning to the NJCAA Division III Tournament after it swept Western Wisconsin Technical College 25-18, 25-17, 25-14 in the semifinals of the Region 13 Tournament Friday.
The Lady Warriors (24-9) will square off against Madison Area Technical College (32-7) today at 1 p.m. in the championship match. Madison clipped Rochester 25-19, 24-26, 25-14, 25-22 in other semifinal.
Ridgewater swept Madison in last year's Region 13 title match en route to placing second at the national tournament.
Entering the region tournament, Madison was ranked third in the NJCAA Division III poll, Rochester fourth and Ridgewater fifth.
The Lady Warriors got a balanced attack Friday with Jordan Olerud and Karie Blommel both pounding down eight kills. Steph Tillman followed with seven and Leah Miller piled up five more. Karina Fesenmaier paced the offense with 33 assists.
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"We'll need to get another balanced attack tomorrow," said Ridgewater coach Joe Sussenguth. "We'll need to spread the floor to keep (Madison's) blockers moving."
Ridgewater committed only 11 hitting errors as a team and collected nine ace serves -- three each from Tillman and Olerud -- but it took a while for the Lady Warriors to get used to Western Wisconsin's pace.
"It was a tough match to adjust because they slowed down the pace," said Sussenguth. "But we made some adjustments and it was a good opening-round win for us. We will definitely raise our level of play tomorrow."
Ridgewater 3, WWTC 0
WWTC 18 17 14
Ridgewater 25 25 25
(Key: good-attempts-aces)
Western Wisconsin Technical
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Statistics not available
Ridgewater
Serving: Steph Tillman 14-15-3, Steph Boulton 9-9-2, Leah Miller 8-9-0, Emma Koeberl 2-2-0, Darcie Listul 5-8-0, Jordan Olerud 16-18-3, Karina Fesenmaier 9-10-1, Laurann Johnson 2-3-0 ... Setting (assists): Fesenmaier 33 ... Hitting: Tillman 16-17-7, Miller 16-18-5, Koeberl 1-1-0, Listul 1-1-1, Olerud 18-20-8, Fesenmaier 7-8-2, Missy Deal 2-2-1, Karie Blommel 18-20-8, Mackenzie Kessler 10-13-3 ... Blocking (aces): Tillman 1, Fesenmaier 1, Kessler 1 ... Digs: Miller 5, Listul 6, Olerud 6, Fesenmaier 5
