Welcome to day three of our 28-day tour through every boys and girls WIAA volleyball sectional. We're trying, we really are, to provide coverage that's fair and comprehensive, but we also know these previews are far from perfect. The good news is we can make corrections relatively quickly. Let us know what's what, and we'll improve, we really will, over time. This sectional has six teams vying for a single ticket to Tosa: Catholic Memorial, Fort Atkinson, Kettle Moraine, Madison East, Madison La Follette and Waukesha West.
We're thinking it will probably be either CM, KM or WW, but YNK (as in, You Never Know).
Last year's Classic Eight player of the year Taylor Braun is gone, but Catholic Memorial remains the odds-on favorite to make it out of this sectional, having reached the state finals last year before losing to Milwaukee Marquette in four. Returnees include senior setter Ty Cobb (we don't make this stuff up) who racked up 20 assists in last year's finals, as well as sophomore libero Dan Caspar, who was second team all-Classic Eight and the recent winner of his age group at the Bradford Beach Jam.
Kettle Moraine returns junior setter Jim Mayenschein, who'll be feeding all-state senior Ean Reid. Other key contributors could include juniors Jonathan Tuttle and Mitch Rupp. The Lasers will be a solid group and might even repeat their success of last year when they took Catholic Memorial to five in the sectional finals.
Waukesha West lost a ton of talented players to graduation, including Joey Jonas and Alex Rohde, but they should still have enough firepower to make some serious noise in this sectional. If they do, it will no doubt be partially due to two returning "Dan's": junior defensive standout Dan Simon and junior Dan Jonas.
Madison East has a new coach, Tyler Cleveland, and a Web site that's nothing short of spectacular. Returning Purgolders include senior James Bartelt, sophomore Joe Toman and senior Tony Bolvin. Coach Cleveland is clearly looking to revitalize a program that "has not won a postseason game in nine years." They've even planned a t-shirt promotion for their home match against Fort Atkinson on September 11. Good stuff and worth supporting if you're in the Madison area.
We couldn't find enough on Fort Atkinson or Madison La Follette to say anything much, but we promise to keep googling if you promise to send us any insights you might have.
Our boys sectional three prediction: Catholic Memorial over Waukesha West in four on West's home court.
Tomorrow: Boys Sectional 4 (probably toward evening, but we'll try to get it up sooner)
3 comments:
We officially dropped the Westosha and are just Central High School
Didnt know where to put this comment, so I figured I would add it to the sectional it pertains to. This week it seems will be a good preview of who could move on in this sectional. Catholic Memorial hosts Waukesha West on thursday night in a classic eight match that could decide conference. It features two of the top liberos in the conference and maybe state (Dan Casper, Dan Simon) as well as some big junior middles contributing to both squads. Should be a great match.
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