MONROE — Setter Mya Wild snuck the ball over on a tip, giving Monroe a 25-18 victory in the first of a five-set loss to Jefferson on Sept. 24. Despite the final score, the Cheesemakers had something to celebrate, as they won their first conference game in the 2024 season. Rock Valley Conference opponents Whitewater, East Troy and Delavan-Darien had swept Monroe in their first meetings.

“I’m so proud. I can’t ask for anything else,” Monroe head coach Cassie Wittman said. “They are finally putting everything together and working so hard in practice. It shows.”

After exchanging points early in the first set, an attack error by second-team all-conference hitter Ashlyn Enke put Aubrie Voegeli to the service line. It was a rotation that led to a five-point rally and the lead.

Jefferson committed back-to-back to errors, and Monroe took advantage of an Eagle free ball. Aubrie Voegeli received and set to Wild, who tipped the ball over her shoulder for a kill. Aubrie Voegeli then hit her zone for an ace.

Monroe extended its lead to 14-9 with a kill from Delaney Douglas and ace from Wild, forcing Jefferson to take its first timeout.

The pause proved beneficial, as the Eagles went on a 6-2 run to pull within one point. But an attack from Avery Kaiser that bounced off many Jefferson players’ arms before falling out of bounds sparked a run.

Enke committed another error and Aubrie Voegeli notched her second ace of the game. Riley Nicholson then saw a hole in the back row, pushed the ball deep in the court and Jefferson’s Ella Fetherston watched it fall. The play forced Jefferson’s second timeout, trailing 20-15.

A three-point run, capped by an ace from Kaiser, set up game point. Monroe recovered from a service error, as Wild tallied the winning point on a tip kill.

“We’ve been working to finish sets this whole season,” Wild said. “Tonight really showed that we could do it. I was excited and proud of myself.”

But as well-oiled of a machine as Monroe looked in the first set, the Cheesemakers completely fell apart in the second. They fell behind 7-1, giving Jefferson its first four points on attack errors. After a first set full of attack errors, Enke found her groove, and her kill on an overpass by Kennedy Voegeli put Jefferson ahead 11-2.

A block by Kaiser and Nicholson gave Monroe its first offensive point, but the excitement of the play did little to slow the Eagles. Back-to-back kills by honorable mention player Ella Fetherston gave Jefferson a 16-6 lead and forced Monroe’s second timeout.

Monroe faced its largest deficit of the second game, 18-6, with back-to-back aces by Enke. But that didn’t dampen the Cheesemakers. Two points away from losing the set, Monroe went on a six-point run.

A service error by Finley Sikora put Aubrie Voegeli to the line yet again. With that rotation, Kaiser blocked a poor serve receive to get back within 10. The Eagles’ nerves got to them, committing three straight attack errors. Aubrie Voegeli served up another ace, her third of the match. 

Although Kaiser held off two set points with a free ball kill and tip, Enke put the second game away, 25-19, with a kill off the blockers’ fingertips.

Set three began much like the first with the two teams exchanging points. Where it was Aubrie Voegeli’s time to shine at the line in the first two games, it was Kaiser’s in the third. Her back-to-back aces gave Monroe an 11-6 lead and forced Jefferson’s first timeout. The Cheesemakers maintained a five-point lead midway through the set, as Kennedy Voegeli also served up back-to-back aces.

“We practice really hard on it,” Wittman said of the team’s serving. The team ended with 16 aces and a 87.5 serving percentage. “We take time out during practice and stand awkwardly for a minute because you have to get past that fear in a game. We have everyone stand on the sidelines and cheer, say weird things and do stuff and put them on the service line because they will encounter that stuff. It’s finally showing.”

But the lead quickly dwindled as the Cheesemakers watched two serves from Sikora catch the back line for aces. Wild was then late getting to the second ball, resulting in a Cheesemaker timeout with a slim 17-16 advantage.

The break was too little too late, as momentum had already shifted to Jefferson. The Eagles closed the set on a 9-4 run, capped by an overpass kill from Fetherston. The 25-21 victory gave Jefferson a decisive 2-1 edge in the match.

Down to the wire, Monroe came out to a 3-1 lead with a kill from Sophie Golembiewski and back-to-back aces from Olivia Feller. The Cheesemakers quickly doubled up the Eagles, 14-7, with a four-point rally. The final point of the run, a block by Golembiewski and Delaney Douglas, resulted in a Jefferson timeout. The lead grew to 10 points, 19-9, with two more aces from Feller.

Although Jefferson won 10 of the 16 final points, Monroe’s lead was too great to overcome. Just as she did in the first set, Wild gave Monroe its second game victory with a push to the back court. The Eagles had creeped up anticipating Sikora’s attack to fall, but Golembiewski dug it out for Wild to score.

But Jefferson sucked the wind out of Monroe’s sails in the winner-take-all fifth set. The Eagles allowed just five points en route to a 15-5 set win and match victory.

Four Monroe players were big at the line — Aubrie Voegeli (4 aces), Kennedy Voegeli (3), Feller (4) and Kaiser (3). In fact, Aubrie Voegeli was perfect in 26 attempts. Offensively, Douglas had seven kills in 19 attempts for a .263 hitting percentage. Wild recorded 16 assists and four players had double-digit digs —  Kennedy Voegeli (15), Aubrie Voegeli (11), Feller (14) and Wild (15).

Now that they’ve gotten the first set victory out of the way, the next goal is to win a match. To do so, Feller knows it all starts in practice.

“I think we just have to find it in practice and make sure that everyone is giving their best effort,” Feller said. “If we aren’t pushing each other, we aren’t going to get any better.”