The Manawa Wolves volleyball team traveled to Wittenberg, Tuesday, Oct. 1, to face the conference leading Wittenberg-Birnamwood Chargers.

W-B, who has not lost a conference match this season, handled the Wolves despite the Wolves playing some of their best volleyball of the season

In the first set of the match, the Wolves came out strong. Ashlee Strebe, who serves second in the Wolves’ line up, put together a six point run, which would help Manawa keep the lead until the Chargers fought back to tie it up at 8. On the side out, with solid serving from Baylee Gorges, Manawa was able to jump to an 11 to 8 lead. But once again W-B fought back and the Wolves never led in the set after that. The first set went to the Chargers, 25-18.

The second set was the most exciting of the night. Both teams flew through their rotations with neither team scoring more than three points with most servers. The game continued this way right up until the end. The Chargers were the first to 24, while the Wolves had 22. Manawa fought hard for the side out and, with an ace serve from Lexie Sell, tied the game at 24. The Chargers then sided out, but only gained the rally point before Manawa tied it again at 25. With one more rally point and an offensive point to follow the Chargers pulled ahead, 2 sets to 0, with a score of 27-25.

Missed serves plagued the Wolves in the final set of the night. They missed three early on in the match and allowed the Chargers a seven point run to put them up 13 to 5. This deficit was too much to overcome for Manawa, and W-B won 25-15.

Manawa played the Chargers very tight at the net, getting a lot of blocks on the solid attacks. Breana Haines continued to impress. With 12 point, three of which were block kills, she once again led her team. The Wolves’ other middle hitter, Autumn Ferg was second in total points. She had six. Sell, Aubrie Millard, and Chloe Koehn each contributed three points while Kali Young had two and Molly Loughrin and Strebe each had one.

Sell had 10 assists for the night while Katie Velie contributed five. Young, who is usually an outside hitter, did an amazing job filling in as the libero. She not only had the most digs for the team with eight but she also served 100 percent from the service line with nine perfect serves.

Manawa’s next match is Thursday, Oct. 10 when they host Marion at 7:30 p.m.