Midgettes sweep Falcons

HURLEY - The No. 4-seeded Hurley Midgettes ended No. 5 Flambeau's season with a 3-0 sweep in Tuesday's WIAA Division 3 regional volleyball tournament opener.

Hurley won 25-17, 25-16, 25-22.

"It was nice to get the 4 seed, it was nice to play at home and it was nice to get out of here with the win tonight," Hurley coach Liz Constantini said. "I like the way our girls played at the net, blocking. I like the way we served. Our serving percentage was pretty high."

It was the first tournament win for the Midgettes since they won at Chequamegon 3-2 in 2011.

"I think we stuck pretty much to our game plan, which was to keep putting pressure on them offensively," Constantini said. "It's something we've been working on all year long, so it's nice to see the girls come together and get that done."

The final game was the closest as Flambeau tied it at 22-22 before the Midgettes scored the final three points. An ace by Becca Ratkowski made it 24-22 Hurley and the Midgettes were able to get the final point to win it.

"It did get a little scary," Constantini said. "I think it's just one of those things when we're up and down all year long, it was nice to see them pull through and finish in the third game rather than letting it get pushed to a fourth or fifth game. That again is something we've improved on over the course of the season."

Felicia Herlevi and MaKayla Wolfe both had seven kills to lead Hurley. Olkonen had six. Herlevi had three aces. Wolfe and Ratkowski each had two. Tianne Kuula had 19 assists.

Hurley (12-14) plays at No. 1 Cameron (23-4) Thursday at 7 p.m. in a regional semifinal. Cameron beat No. 8 Chetek-Weyerhaeuser 25-5, 25-18, 25-4 Tuesday night.

"I'm excited to go to Cameron and see what our block can do against some really good hitting," Constantini said.