Brynn Erickson and Allison Luoma each had 12 kills to lead Northwestern to a 3-1 victory over Barron in a Wisconsin Division 2 regional final Saturday night, Oct. 24, at Barron.

Brinley Tonn totaled 36 set assists in the 26-24, 25-22, 21-25, 25-21 victory, while the Tigers’ defense was stellar with Erickson (30), Kayla Paulsen (21), Luoma (18), Tonn (11) and Brynn Hessel (10) all recording double-digit digs.

Northwestern (5-6) won its first region title since 2006. The fourth-seeded Tigers advance to play at top-seeded St. Croix Falls in a section semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29.

“Tonight’s match was a battle,” said Northwestern volleyball coach Charlie Hessel. “Barron is obviously a very good team. Our girls really played outstanding defense and it was a total team effort. Both teams were aggressive with their serves; we each missed several, but we also put each other out of system a lot. When it came down to it, we were just a little tougher in transition. I am so proud of our girls. They have worked extremely hard physically and mentally and earned this.”

Evergreens advance

Emme Golembiewski had 21 kills and three ace serves as Northwood defeated Bruce 25-23, 25-21, 25-10 as the Evergreens captured the Wisconsin Division 4 regional championship Saturday, Oct. 24.

Emily Berg added 13 Kills and three aces as her and Golembiewski have come alive in postseason play. Helping set them up was Kayla Schultz (20 assists) and Keira Link (10 assists) while Annika Patrick and Becky Liautaud paced the defense with 13 and 11 digs, respectively.

Third-seeded Northwood advances to play second-seeded McDonell Central in a section semifinal at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29, in Chippewa Falls.

“What a great team effort. So proud of these athletes,” Northwood coach Cory Coons said. “We were told the plaque was ‘in the mail’ but that did not seem to disappoint this team and their excitement of clenching the regional champion title. This will definitely go down as one of the great highlights of 2020.”