Two Out of Three May Not Be Bad, But Two Out of Eight Ain't Great

In our effort to predict which eight matches would go five sets tonight, we had, how shall we say, less-than-stellar results. To be specific, we were two for eight. 

Our predicting started out just fine. In D1, we correctly predicted that Homestead and Watertown would go the distance and Watertown squeaked by in an 18-16 fifth game. We also correctly predicted that Middleton and Sun Prairie would go five (Middleton won). 

In D2, we weren't nearly so accurate. OK, we were 100 percent wrong. We missed Rice Lake's five-set 16-14 thriller over Hayward (which happened to be the only five-setter in the entire division). Our prediction that Greendale and Edgewood would go five came up one set short when Edgewood won in four. 

D3 proved no better for our predictive abilities. We failed to guess that the Newman Catholic-Colby match would go five. Newman Catholic won the fifth 16-14. (In other D3 news, the two last teams standing in the state are both in this division and they're both still standing. Grantsburg won in three over Washburn and Sheboygan Lutheran won in four over Laconia). 

So did we do any better in D4? The answer is a resounding nope. We didn't predict the five-setter between Potosi and Weston that Potosi would eventually win. Nor did we figure out beforehand that Spring Valley would need all five (and then some) to defeat Royall 17-15. 

The bottom line: There were a lot of unbelievable volleyball matches tonight. We congratulate the winners and loudly applaud the incredible efforts of those who left it all out on the court but came up just short.