No. 1 ranked Appleton North is headed to the girls state softball tournament for the first time since 2018 after taking down FVA foe No. 2 Kimberly, 9-8, in an epic WIAA Sectional Final clash Thursday.WATCH THE THRILLING HIGHLIG HTS! Girl's softball: Appleton North, Fox Valley Lutheran and New Holstein headed to stateWe're a good team and we play as one, Alyssa Wald, the only senior on the team, said. We play for each other, and that's how we got all of our runsis because we just had singles and doubles. We didn't have a bunch of crazy home runs, but at the end of the day, we still won, and that's how I know it's because of our team and camaraderie.The Papermakers went ahead 2-0 with back-to-back home runs in the top of the first to start the game, but the Lightning scored eight unanswered to go up 8-2 in the fourth.Appleton North took a 9-6 lead heading into the ninth, and Papermakers outfielder Brecken Luedke hit a two-run homer, her second dinger of the day, to make it a one-run game.Kimberly had the bases loaded with two outs but popped out to short center to end the game.My heart kind of dropped, and I knew that Madison was on the horizon, and it's just, it's an amazing feeling that you'll never be able to describe, Wald said about the final out.Before the game, right, we're playing for one more opportunity to play with each other again, and that's what we care aboutbeing around each other, the players, their families," Appleton North head coach Chris Nissen added. "Everyone pitches ineverybody's incredible, moms doing breakfast for the girls all the time, team dinners."The culture the parents and families bring is just so fantastic here," Nissen continued. "It's great to get back to Appleton North. It was a bit of a lull from 2018 till now, but the administration at North is 100% behind athletics, especially girls athletics."OTHER SCORES:Division 1:Stevens Point 7, Preble 6Division 2:FVL 7, Denmark 6Division 3:New Holstein 9, Wittenberg-Birnamwood 2WATCH THE HIGHLIGHTS! New Holstein punches ticket to state with 9-2 winDivision 4:Johnson Creek 8, Algoma 0 ...read more read less