69����

“I don’t think we played our best, obviously,” senior Elise Wieters said. “I think we could have come together more and had more communication. I’m just really proud of this team and how far we came. I’m going to miss playing with everybody.”

Hadley Murphy led the Red Hawks in kills with 12 and recorded four blocks. Wieters made 25 digs and Emme Dummer provided 27 assists and produced four blocks.

Milton grabbed a 7-3 advantage in the final set and turned that into a 13-11 lead. Madison Memorial tied it up with two kills, but the Red Hawks regained the lead at 15-14. Milton took the lead once more at 15–14, but the Spartans quickly tied the score. A Milton error then handed the Spartans a lead they would never relinquish.

Errors proved to be costly for the Red Hawks 12 in the first set alone. Each time they looked to close the gap, an error stopped their momentum. A kill by Murphy moved the score to 8-7 in favor of Madison Memorial. The Red Hawks committed three errors in a row after that.

“We had the energy and communication but we made a lot of errors,” Milton coach Katie Kinman said. “We controlled the pace but the loss came from the amount of errors. We worked a lot on serve receive, and I definitely think that improved a ton… Unfortunately some of the errors and giving them every other point killed us.”

Junior outside hitter Kylee Buttchen went down with an ankle injury in the second set. Freshman Delaney Leeder filled her role.

“Leeder did fantastic and filled that role, but she also doesn’t have that experience,” Kinman said. “So I’m super proud of how she played; she stepped into Kylee’s role, but she was definitely missed on the court.”

In addition to their 26-15 record, the Red Hawks went 5-2 in the Badger Large. Milton’s season ended Thursday but Kinman is happy with the way it went.

“It was successful,” she said. “We had four seniors on the team, two were our leaders on the court. Our growth is huge. We started with a lot of rotations, different people trying out in different spots and our energy was huge.”