Abby volleyball looks to repeat in 2025
With most of their starting rotation returning from 2024’s Marawood-North champion squad, this year’s Abbotsford Falcons volleyball team will be looking to repeat as conference title winners while also making a deeper playoff run in 2025.
While there were some growing pains for the Falcons in 2024 as a team heavy on newcomers needed some time to find their footing, things came together during the conference schedule. Abbotsford went 4-1 in the Marawood-North, winning two tough matches against Phillips and Prentice in the two weeks of the season to bring home their first conference title since 2019.
“Last year, winning conference was almost a surprise to people I think,” head coach John Kreeger said. “Every coach I talked to in the conference, the conference commissioner, they all kind of made that same comment, that they weren’t really expecting that, but I think it goes to show how young we were early.”
“You look back on our win-loss, we had a really rough start to the year, but that was just youth and inexperience,” he added. “We were in a lot of matches and just couldn’t close them out. So this year I think we are the exact opposite. I think we are looking to start really strong, because we are bringing back everybody.”
Now with many in their starting rotation having at least a year of varsity experience under their belts, the Falcons will be aiming to repeat and improve upon their 11-17 regular season record last season.
Though Abbotsford will be short allconference honorable mention Reece Nelson, who graduated in the spring, they will have four 2024 all-conference award winners back. Unanimous first team all-conference selections Faith Sperl and Celia Schindler are back after helping lead the Falcons during their junior season. Sperl has served as the Falcons setter since her freshman season and will continue her important role as Abbotsford’s floor general. Schindler, meanwhile, was the team’s top offensive option in 2024 and is poised to continue in that capacity. Both were also important pieces of the Falcons’ service game, with Sperl leading the team in aces and Schindler providing the third most for Abbotsford last year.
Second team all-conference junior Marilyn Hammock and honorable mention senior Caylee Clement also return. Hammock was impressive for Abbotsford at the net during her sophomore campaign, racking up the most blocks for the Falcons. Meanwhile, Clement was a cornerstone for the team’s defensive and serving efforts, finishing second on the team in digs and aces.
Junior Riley Podevels and sophomore Lauryn Harris were also integral parts of Abbotsford’s rotation in 2024, the former serving as an outside hitter and the later as a middle. Podevels finished second on the team in total kills last year while Harris was second in blocks and hitting percentage. Junior Campbell Brodhagen will likely slot into the spot left by Nelson after gaining some varsity experience last season.
With much of the varsity team coming back, many of the challenges that faced the Falcons early last year hopefully won’t be as difficult to overcome. Kreeger noted that it takes time for a team to come together, which Abbotsford dealt with last season.
“A lot of it is trust,” he said. “The way we run our offense, and even our defense, you have to trust other people to do their job, because we have really strict responsibilities and you have to trust your teammates to be on time. I think it took awhile, but they hit their stride right around the time we started conference [play]. They started to trust each other and I think that’s when the switch flipped.”
“I think they’re going to build on last year,” Kreeger continued. “Our first game against Greenwood, you could tell it was our first game, we were a little shaky here and there. But how quickly they got back on track says a lot. They played a lot together during the summer, they put in a lot of extra time, and I think they have high expectations for themselves.”
Capturing a second straight conference title won’t be an easy task, even with the amount of returning talent that Abbotsford possesses. It once again is shaping up to be a battle for the top spot, with no clear cut favorite and almost every team having a pathway to the top. Rib Lake dealt the Falcons their only conference loss last season the team to knock Abbotsford out of the playoffs. They return most of their starting lineup, including five seniors that earned all-conference honors last year.
While Phillips and Prentice have more question marks given their senior-led squads last season, both programs have consistently fielded impressive teams over the past decade and have almost always rebounded from such losses. While Athens will be younger, they will still have first team all-conference player Sy’Rih Hartwig leading the way and Chequamegon has potential to rise up the rankings should other programs falter.
Using their quick attacking offense and putting teams on the back foot with their serves will be key for the Falcons as they try to come out on top of a competitive conference.
“One of the strengths of our team is definitely our service game,” Kreeger said. “Against Greenwood, we had somewhere around 20 aces. I would put our servers against almost anyone in the state. I really believe we are never out of any game [because of that], and I think our kids do too. They have unimaginable confidence at the service line that they can perform, so we’re going to come out and put a lot of pressure on teams from the service line.”
Taller teams could once again give Abbotsford some trouble, as they have in the past. Given who the Falcons could potentially face in the playoffs, it’s something that they will need to find ways to work around as the season progresses.
“Against bigger teams, we just have to be faster than them,” Kreeger noted. “We’ll put a lot of pressure on their block, make them make decisions before plays happen. When we play big teams, our goal out of those is how can we learn from those moments and what do we do about it.”
The Falcons already have some experience under their belts in 2025, starting off their regular season schedule with a nonconference match against Greenwood before traveling to Wisconsin Rapids for their first tournament of the season this past weekend.
Wisconsin Rapids Tournament
The Falcons had the opportunity to play against some tough opponents over the weekend, going up against the likes of a top Division 2 squad in Reedsburg, as well as Wausau East, Colby, and Mondovi. Abbotsford went 2-3 at the tournament, falling to Reedsburg and Colby while splitting against Wausau East and defeating Mondovi.
Abbotsford was able to get a set off of Reedsburg, bouncing back from a 25-15 game one loss to win the second set 25-23, but could not quite seal the upset in the third, falling 15-12. While they were able to generate some quick points off the serve, racking up nine aces, they struggled to find consistency in their offense, getting just 12 kills to 22 hitting errors.
Celia Schindler and Lauryn Harris both had five kills each, Schindler led the team with three aces and Caylee Clement, Riley Podevels and Faith Sperl all had eight digs each. The Falcons matched Reedsburg in total blocks with four, with Schindler, Harris and Marilyn Hammock all getting in on two each.
A slow start against Colby killed any momentum Abbotsford had in the match as they fell 2-0 to the Hornets, going down 25-11 and 25-21.
The Falcons had a better hitting percentage than they did against Reedsburg, collecting 13 kills to 12 errors, but the points generated from their serves did not materialize as it had in the Beavers matchup. Abbotsford was held to just one ace in the loss. Schindler and Harris once again provided the most kills for the Falcons, recording five and four respectively, while Clement shouldered the defense, taking 20 of the 36 serve receives without an error and leading the team in digs with nine.
Sweeps of Wausau East and Mondovi turned things around for Abbotsford. They defeated the Lumberjacks 25-16 and 25-18, getting 10 aces in the two sets. Sperl and Clement led the way with four each while Schindler and Podevels both had one apiece. Sperl also had five kills on just seven attempts, the setter getting in on the scoring action on offense.
A 25-13 win over Mondovi set the tone early for the Falcons and they were able to hold on for a 25-23 win to complete the sweep. Led by four aces from Sperl, six kills from Hammock and seven digs from Schindler, the Falcons were able to put away the Buffaloes in straight sets. They were also highly effective hitting, putting together 25 kills in just 61 attempts for a .311 hitting percentage. They also had a season-low six hitting errors.
The rematch against the Lumberjacks did not go in the Falcons favor, as they fell 2-1. After notching a 25-18 win in the first game, Wausau East was able to come out in a close 26-24 game two to take momentum and sneak out with a 15-13 victory in the third.
Schindler had an impressive match, recording 13 kills on 31 attempts while also recording two aces and tying for second on the team with seven digs. Sperl and Clement led the Falcons with four aces each, Campbell Brodhagen had three and Podevels added another two as Abbotsford racked up 15 across the three sets. Their 30 kills were also a team-high for a three-set match so far this season, but it was not quite enough to top the Lumberjacks a second time.
Greenwood, 3-0
Though it took Abbotsford a little while to settle into their first match of the season, they settled into their game in the second set and dominated from there on, cruising to a 3-0 sweep of Greenwood last Tuesday evening.
The Indians were able to put up a little fight in the opening set of the contest, but the hosting Falcons completely shut down any hope of an upset in the second. After coming out on top 25-19 in the first game, Abbotsford allowed fewer than 19 points across the final two sets combined, crushing the visitors 25-5 in the second set and easily winning the third set 25-12.
While 20 hitting errors across the three sets hurt the Falcons, they more than made up for it from the service line. Greenwood’s defense could not handle the home team’s serves as they racked up 23 aces over the course of the contest. Caylee Clement led the way with seven aces, Celia Schindler and Faith Sperl added six each and Lauryn Harris and Campbell Brodhagen both had two each.
Harris also had a very impressive day at the net for the Falcons, recording a team-high 11 kills and a .364 hitting percentage in the victory. Schindler added another five while Sperl and Marilyn Hammock had four each.
