CHIPPEWA FALLS — Western Wisconsin is blessed with tremendous girls volleyball teams and coaches.
In the Chippewa Valley, the winning standard is set by Chippewa Falls McDonell and coach Kat Hanson.
Hanson has led three state championship McDonell teams, with the first coming in 2009 and back-to-back wins in 2021 and 2022. Hanson also led two other McDonell state appearances.
Entering her 16th year at the helm of the Macks volleyball team, Hanson is excited to see summer finally pass and get back in the gym.
“We had a lot of participation this summer, and the kids really wanted to be there, which was awesome,” Hanson said. “It feels like they’re focused, and that they’re ready to go. They’re ready to learn and grow, and it seems like they’re enjoying the game and are excited to be there and be present.”
The Macks ended last season with a 43-3 record and took home regional and Western Cloverbelt Conference championships.
At one point, last year’s Macks were Division 4’s No. 1 ranked team and won 38 straight matches.
However, McDonell fell to rival Eau Claire Regis in the WIAA sectional semifinal on their home floor, leaving a sour taste in their mouths.
Along with added motivation, the Macks bring back all but one graduated senior, Chloe Flanagan, from last year’s team.
Flanagan, a communicative leader for McDonell, will be missed. However, a core of experienced upperclassmen should make the Macks a contender once again.
“This core group that we have coming back has played together for a lot of years,” Hanson said. “They’ve been around each other for a while. For the last two years, we’ve (had) a lot of underclassmen on our team, and now it’s flipped. Now they’re upperclassmen, and that just brings a different vibe to the gym.”
Leading that group are senior twins Anne and Erin Siegenthaler. Both earned Division 4 Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association all-state honors and all-conference honors last year, with Anne earning Cloverbelt co-player of the year.
Behind them, the Macks supply the likes of seniors Riley Christianson and Kherington Mosack, juniors Payton Hepfler and Sophia Sikora and sophomore Taylan Hanson.
“All seven of those were letter winners. All seven of them had many accolades during the season,” coach Hanson said. “There’ll be a couple more bodies probably coming in and joining the team. But yeah, that main core is still there.”
The Macks have already started hot this year, as their varsity and junior varsity teams each went undefeated to claim the Altoona Preseason Tournament crown last weekend.
“We had a great weekend of playing ball,” Hanson said. “Lots of energy and high effort there too. It was pretty awesome to see.”
McDonell will look to use all of its energy and effort in hopes of claiming its fourth volleyball state title.
With all the pieces to do so, Hanson knows today’s efforts will be tomorrow’s reward.
“It comes back to controlling what we can and taking care of what we need to in our gym every day: our attitude, our effort and supporting each other as teammates,” Hanson said. “This group is very talented physically, and so when we can utilize those things through high effort every day, we’re going to see some great results and put ourselves in a good position to make a deep run in the playoffs.”
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