The Pioneer girls basketball season is already off to a hot start. The girls are coming off back-to-back conference championships, and they are looking to three-peat this season.
The girls returned four seniors hoping to lead the team with experience, and they delivered to start the season, starting 4-1 with conference wins against Sturgeon Bay and Southern Door at home.
The season slowed down a bit for the girls during the middle of December, as they went 1-3, with losses to rivals Algoma and Kewaunee. After that stretch of games, though, the team seemed to flip a switch and began to dominate their competition. They started their streak with two road wins vs Wrightstown and Two Rivers, with senior Noami Rikkola dropping 28 points at Wrightstown and senior Kayla Ranly scoring 23 versus Two Rivers.
Then came maybe the most defining moment of the Pioneers season, when senior Noami Rikkola banked home a layup versus N.E.W at home on Saturday, January 4 to become Sevastopol Basketball’s all-time leading scorer, passing Michelle Bushman. Rikkola finished the game with 18 points, and the girls cruised to a win, with the final score of 56-40.
The girls then took care of their next two conference games, beating Oconto and Peshtigo with combined efforts from the entire group, with 8 of their players scoring at least once in the two wins combined. The girls were on the road again January 17, as they traveled for a non-conference game to Wabeno-Laona. There they were tested early, but they came up with big steals and clutch buckets in fast breaks from seniors Addison Schauske and Ella Volkmann, and towards the end of the second half, you wouldn’t have even thought it was close as the Pioneers got the win by 20.
“After Wabeno-Laona knocked us out of the playoffs two years in a row, this felt like a really big accomplishment for our team,” senior Volkmann said. “And being able to find redemption on their court was sweet.”
The Pioneers traveled to Sturgeon Bay on January 23, where they would easily defeat the Clippers, 77-39. However, during the game Kayla Ranly scored her 1000th career point, cementing her legacy in Pioneer girls basketball for years to come. Ranly led all scorers at Sturgeon Bay, as the Pioneers went to 13-4 on the season. The Pioneers were on the road again on January 25, traveling to Southern Door and shutting them down, completing the sweep of the Eagles on the season. Ranly followed up her milestone performance with 29, adding to her already impressive point total.
This improved the girls to 14-4 record on the season, and an impressive 8-2 conference record, good enough for third in conference, just a half game back of Algoma and 2 back of first place Kewaunee. Sevastopol is once again looking forward to what the girls can do come postseason time, as they have already had a record-breaking season.
