After the Elmwood/Plum City girls’ basketball team beat Spring Valley at home on Feb. 3, head coach Tom Sauve said that his team’s goal for the rest of the season was to win a first-round playoff game on the road.

Sauve and the No. 12-seeded Wolves accomplished that feat on Tuesday, Feb. 21, when they traveled to Clear Lake and knocked off the fifth-seeded Warriors 43-38 to advance to the regional semifinal game against No. 4 New Auburn.

Although Elmwood/Plum City suffered a 36-31 overtime defeat against New Auburn, it didn’t take away from what Sauve’s Wolves accomplished in the first-round upset of Clear Lake. He spoke about how his girls bought into the idea of competing against a much higher seed.

“We kept telling our girls that records don’t matter in the playoffs and that we played a tougher schedule than most Division 5 schools play,” Sauve said. “We knew Clear Lake was good, but we felt like we matched up well and the girls bought into the fact that they could compete with them. We went up there and played a solid game.”

Clear Lake went into the first-round game averaging just over 47 points per game. Elmwood/Plum City’s aggressive defense and full-court press limited the Warriors’ offensive looks and held them to just 38 points on Tuesday night.

Perhaps no aspect of the Wolves’ victory was more critical than defending the three-point line, especially against Clear Lake junior Ellie Cress, whose 110 career three-pointers broke the program’s all-time record earlier this season.

The Wolves ran Cress off the arc all night, as she made just one three-pointer en route to a five-point performance that also featured five turnovers. Clear Lake’s second-largest offensive threat on Tuesday night was junior forward Kate Rosen.

Although Rosen finished with 13 points on 6-9 shooting, the Wolves forced her to turn it over four times. Clear Lake finished the game with 25 turnovers compared to EPC’s 18, which ultimately helped the Wolves secure the upset victory on the road.

“We knew we had to shut down Cress and their left-handed post player Kate Rosen,” Sauve said. “Those were our two focal points. We felt like if we shut them down, we’d have a pretty good shot. It’s a credit to our girls for doing that and knowing where their shooters were.”

Another critical aspect of the Wolves’ win was their dominance on the glass. Sauve’s Wolves snagged 35 boards compared to Clear Lake’s 22 on Tuesday night. Elmwood/Plum City dictated the terms of the game with their defense of the three-point line, success on the glass and full-court pressure.

“One of our focal points is to always try to limit teams to one shot,” Sauve said. “The offensive rebounding was huge. We beat them on the glass pretty handily. We limited them to one shot and if we wouldn’t have done that, our five-point win might have been a three-point loss. That was a huge part of the win.”

With their season and high school careers on the line, Elmwood/Plum City’s seniors stepped up in the first-round road game against Clear Lake. Hannah Forster led all scorers with 16 points, 13 rebounds, an assist and two steals in the win.

Other seniors filling up the box score include Isabella Forster’s 10 points, eight boards, one assist and three steals while Allyson Fleishauer had 10 points, three rebounds, an assist and four steals. EPC’s senior class includes Hannah and Isabella Forster, Fleishauer, Lily Webb and Grace Hinrichs.

Four of the five seniors played pivotal roles this year and all of them started at least one game during the 2022-23 season. Sauve spoke about what the program is losing with the outgoing senior class and the holes they will leave on the varsity roster.

“We’re losing quite a bit,” Sauve said. “All five of the seniors were at one point starting. We don’t have a lot of sophomores and juniors, so the message to the girls will be ‘If you want to play varsity, you’ve got to work for it because we’ll have some open spots.’ We’ve got to develop some depth. It could be a bit of a rebuilding year, but I have faith in our kids.”

The Elmwood/Plum City girls went 1-10 in the first 11 games this season. The Wolves struggled to adjust to the losses of some of last year’s top players. As they found their footing throughout the season and made game plan adjustments, Sauve’s Wolves found identity.

The Wolves circled their wagons beginning with the 46-31 victory at home against Independence on Jan. 17. Starting with that contest, EPC went 7-7 in its final 14 games of the season. He spoke about how the last month of the year made the season feel like a success.

“I think it was a pretty successful year,” Sauve said. “From the Independence game on, we found our identity with that full-court press. A lot of the people in the area were probably surprised to see us beat a five-seed and take a four-seed to overtime. When you look at what we did in the second half of the year, that was more indicative of where we should have been all year. The girls kept growing and overall it was pretty successful. We got to where we wanted to be.”