By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
METAMORA (October 7, 2025) – After what was a less-than-lethargic performance in a win against Cardinal Stritch the night before, Evergreen flipped 180 degrees to the opposite pole.
The week before the Division V Sectionals, Kelsey Wulf’s Vikings looked primed and ready for the postseason with a 27-25, 25-20, 25-19 sweep of Liberty Center (13-8, 4-3 NWOAL).
“We did not play to our level at all last night,” Wulf said. “We were expecting to come in with an easy win, and that’s not what yesterday was.”
“We told them they need to play their absolute best because it was Liberty Center with a good record, a team that beat Swanton and some other good teams. Tonight, we did a good job eliminating a lot of errors we had the night before.”
“This was huge,” Wulf explained about how the win spurs the Vikings into next week.
“This is the kind of momentum you want and be playing at the top of your game right now in the last week of the regular season.
“This way, we have a good push going into the tournament, and it gives us a ton of hope knowing that we can compete with anybody we will face.”
For a long time, the first set seemed like a duel between the Tigers’ heavy-hitting middle Aletha Fausnight and the Vikes’ high-flying outside Lanae Manz.
Manz’s six kills were countered by five by Fausnight as the teams went back and forth with neither getting more than a two-point advantage up to the time it was knotted 18-18.
Fausnight hammered down three more kills to put Evergreen behind the eight-ball at 22-19. After a bad serve, Manz stuck a left-side kill, and a Tiger hit went wide to tie the set.
Ireland Smallman nailed an ace to put Evergreen ahead, but Fausnight answered back to regain a tie at 23-23.
Mackenzie Fuller’s kill put the Tigers on top 25-24, but again Manz flew in from the left to fire a laser down the sideline.
It was then Viking setter Lissa Roesti came up with the kill of the set when, rather than setting up a hitter, the senior dumped a two-hand push into no man’s land to put the Vikes ahead.
“There were huge momentum swings that she was in,” Wulf expressed about Roesti. “There were a couple of dumps to the middle, then to the corners that really helped us.
”We were out of sync a little, and she is so smart game-wise that she knows when to make that shot and where to put it.”
Manz followed up with a tip over a block to give the Vikes the first set. Liberty Center gained an early 10-4 lead in the second thanks to two Avery Maynhart aces and a couple of Fuller kills.
Evergreen (13-8, 4-3 NWOAL) bolted back, this time behind senior middle Beth Sintobin. Sintobin stuffed a Tiger attack with a resounding block, then scored a tip to get Evergreen back to 11-10.
Hope Atkinson’s kill and ace boosted the Tigers back to an 18-14 advantage, but again Evergreen roared back, this time sophomore Lyla Radel leading the way.
Radel scored twice from the middle and denied a Tiger assault with a block around an ace to again bring the Vikes within a point at 19-18.
Roesti’s ace knotted it at 20-20, and after four straight Tiger miscues, Sintobin’s emphatic swat back gave the Vikings the set.
Fausnight traded blows with what seemed like the entire Viking arsenal to keep the Tigers in a 16-16 tie in the third.
Again, came another Viking scoring burst, in this case, Avery Emmitt lighting the fuse. Emmitt knocked one home from the right, then knocked back a Tiger shot for another point.
Manz smoked one from the left and punched a floater over the defense to make it 20-16. Three more kills, two by Manz and another from Radel, closed out the Tigers for the night.