By Reagan Hoverman

The River Falls High School volleyball team has seemingly made winning the UW-Stout Sprawl championship an annual occurrence, as the Wildcats captured a fifth consecutive such title in a three-set match against Chippewa Falls over the weekend in Menomonie.

While River Falls has cruised to multiple Sprawl championships since 2017, the 2022 title match featured Big Rivers onference rival Chippewa Falls, a notoriously tough

team that has pushed the Wildcats to the brink of elimination dating back to last year’s WIAA Sectional Final in which River Falls defeated hi-Hi in a thrilling five-set match to go to state.

This weekend’s 40-team annual Sprawl tournament featured droves of good teams including Hudson, Columbus Catholic, and Saint Croix Falls, but River Falls head coach Sara Kealy knew all along her Wildcats would see Chi-Hi late in the tournament.

“I knew coming into the tournament that we would end up playing that team,” Kealy said in the Johnson Fieldhouse after the championship match. “It was just a matter of working our way through the pools to get here.”

Kealy’s assumption was correct, as both the Wildcats and Cardinals swept their way through pool play on day one of the tournament with perfect 4-0 records. Their excellence continued well into day two as both teams entered the championship match with undefeated overall records without having lost a single set in any of the best-of-three matches.

River Falls quickly disposed of Columbus Catholic in the semifinal and waited to face the winner of hi-Hi and Hudson, which was happening on an adjacent court. Although Chi-Hi won in two sets over the Raiders, both sets were close and Kealy believes that experience played a part in the first set of the championship match.

“I think they came off that more intense match than they were anticipating against Hudson and then playing us, I think they were (surprised),” Kealy said. “I think our experience playing in matches where there are pressure situations helped us in the first set. Morgan (Kealy), Brianna (Brathol), and Abi (Banitt), they’ve been playing together for three or four years and just don’t get rattled.”

In the first set of the championship match experience certainly showed. River Falls jumped out to a quick 8-6 lead which prompted a timeout by Chi-Hi head coach Luke Heidtke. The Wildcats’ momentum wasn’t slowed by the timeout, as River Falls rattled off a run of points to make it 17-11 late in the first set.

River Falls took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series with a 25-15 win in the opening set. While River Falls appeared dominant in the opening set, coach Kealy told her girls that Chi-Hi is too good of a program to roll over in a championship match.

“(Chi-Hi) is a good team. I told my girls they’re not done playing,” Kealy said. “We should know from last year’s sectional final that they’re going to come back.”

For as great as River Falls’ opening set was, Chi-Hi’s second set was equally outstanding. River Falls got out to an early 3-1 lead but after that, it was all Cardinals. Chi-Hi rolled off a scoring run into the middle of the set that culminated in a 14-8 Cardinals’ lead and a timeout by coach Kealy to slow the momentum.

River Falls made small runs but ultimately, Chi-Hi secured a 25-17 victory to claim the second set and even the series 1-1 heading to a winner-take-all third set to 15 points. In that third set, it looked like Chi-Hi was finally going to unseat long time champion River Falls.

The Cardinals jumped out to a commanding 8-2 lead against the Cats in that pivotal third set. That’s when River Falls rolled off five straight points in large part due to Morgan Kealy’s perfection in setting up outside hitter Brianna Brathol for scoring opportunities.

River Falls and Chi-Hi traded points until the set was knotted up 11-11 and coach Heidtke called a timeout. River Falls scored a couple of points to take a 13-11 lead, Chi-Hi answered by eventually tying it 14-14. That’s when River Falls scored the next two points to secure a 16-14 victory in the third and final set to win the 2022 Sprawl championship.

The River Falls starters fell to the floor in celebration as the Wildcats’ bench cleared and mobbed them in the middle of the court. Coach Kealy spoke about going down to the wire against that Chi-Hi team.

“That’s a good team,” Kealy said. “We play them three times this season and we could win all three, they could have won all three or we could split. It’s going to be really interesting depending on where we’re at throughout the season.”

Kealy stated that part of the reason the Cardinals presented such a challenge to River Falls is because of the way they defended outside hitter Brathol. Against weaker teams, Brathol had dominated the outside and scored points in droves.

Chi-Hi made a concerted effort to get blockers into position against Brathol and limit the damage that she was able to do on the outside. Kealy spoke about making adjustments to Chi-Hi’s defensive plan for Brathol.

“We have to find answers for that (defensive adjustment),” Kealy said. “I do think Morgan (Kealy) and I came up with a good plan coming into this. Our L2 spot is so different from our L1 with Brianna (Brathol) and we were setting them evenly and I realized we needed to take the pressure off of that other L side. That’s why Morgan was mixing it up, setting our right side more and I told her to be offensive. She did a really good job of running the offense.” Brathol will remain the star outside hitter for the Wildcats this season; she was restrained in that championship match against Chi-Hi because of their focus on shutting her down. Ultimately, that opened enough opportunities for other players to score and secure the win.

“Brianna is amazing to me because anybody that can get blocked as hard as she did and to still come out and keep grinding, most kids can’t do that,” Kealy said. “If I’m going to battle, I’m going with that kid because I know she’s going to fight. I’ve got confidence in her and Morgan as a setter does too.”

River Falls is already back to work preparing for the first week of Big Rivers Conference play. The Wildcats start the season on the road against that same team, the Chi-Hi Cardinals. That first conference match against Chi-Hi could decide the conference champion, as neither team is expected to lose against any other team in the conference.

That match against ChiHi is on the road on Thursday, Sept. 1. The first set is slated to begin at approximately 7 p.m.

The River Falls High School volleyball team celebrates with the 2022 UW-Stout Sprawl championship trophy after winning the title in a third and final set against the rival Chippewa Falls Cardinals in Menomonie on Saturday, Aug. 27. The championship is the fifth consecutive such title for the Wildcats. Photo by Reagan Hoverman

River Falls senior setter Morgan Kealy sets up senior middle blocker Rebecca Randleman for a scoring opportunity during the Wildcats’ Sprawl semifinal match against Columbus Catholic on Saturday, Aug. 27. Photo by Reagan Hoverman