Elmwood/Plum City opened the season with a Tuesday loss to Clayton 41-22 which was followed by a Thursday loss 49-23 to Black River Falls.

While they hoped for a better start than 0-2 to the year, the Wolves are proud of the way they played coming off a 0-22 season a year ago that featured many margins wider than they saw in the opening week.

“Last year there was some significant blowouts, so that alone is some progress and I hope the girls can see it,” EPC Head Coach Adrian Hook said. “Fortunately, we have 14 days off until we go to Mondovi for our first conference game.”

After falling behind 8-0 quickly, Addasin Ingli and Willow Cripe drained threes to cut the BRF lead to 10-6. The rest of the half was all BRF, as on-ball pressure forced turnover upon turnover to take a 25-6 lead.

The second half saw significant improvements on the offensive end from the Wolves, with Aurora Sampair continuously working her way to the line. The Wolves did not get it done, but it was not for lack of effort as the adjustments showed in the second frame.

“They kind of reflected on the things that went bad in the first half and some of the things we’ve been trying to improve on as a team,” Hook said. “Those opportunities were there, so now it’s just to continue to see those and improve on it.”

The ball pressure is something Hook is glad they saw early, hoping his squad will know how to handle it going forward.

“A big thing with that is just be calm, cool, collected,” Hook said. “We can simulate it in practice, but sometimes when it happens in a real game it can be scary.”

Ellsworth

Ellsworth split its two opening matchups, winning a thriller against River Falls 46-44 at home Tuesday before falling at Durand-Arkansaw 56-34 Thursday.

Tuesday’s game had it all, with massive swings of momentum both ways before freshman Jenna Stoltenburg hit a massive three to give the Panthers the lead and the win with less than 30 seconds to play.

Alivia Maher finished with 14 points, followed by 12 from Stoltenburg and nine from Lexi Marks.

A slow start cost the Panthers against Durand as they fell behind 13-0 early, eventually falling all the way into a 50-24 hole. Ellsworth came on strong at the end but it was too late.

The aggressive defense that got Ellsworth its win was flipped in game two as Durand-Arkansaw applied pressure through a press to make things difficult. Durand-Arkansaw tallied 14 steals in the game and blanked Ellsworth from deep.

Prescott

The Cardinals did not have an easy task in the opening week, taking on an Elk Mound team that did not have a loss heading into the playoffs a year ago and a dangerous team from one of the largest schools in the area in Hudson.

Tuesday’s game against Elk Mound was competitive, but Prescott ultimately could not close the gap in a 57-45 loss. Junior Violet Otto scored 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting and 4-for-9 from deep to lead the way.

Prescott was no match for the Hudson squad Friday, losing 72-37 in Hudson. Junior Hannah Schommer avenged opening game struggles with 11 points and going 3-of-3 from deep. Schommer tacked on three assists and three rebounds.

Spring Valley

Spring Valley had just one opening week game, going on the road against Eau Claire Immanual Lutheran on Friday and dropping the game 53-37. The Cardinals led 22-19 at the half, but overall shooting woes at 13-53 from the field were too much to overcome.

Freshman Jada Hoolihan led the Cardinals with 12 points and another freshman in Katie Matthys added another 10. The future of Spring Valley appears to be in good hands in terms of underclassmen talent.

River Falls

After suffering the aforementioned loss to Ellsworth, River Falls fell 51-21 Monday to Red Wing.

The early season has gotten the best of the Wildcats, but with a lot of youth on the squad, they hope to right the ship as the season treads on.