CONTENDERSCatholic Memorial, Fort Atkinson, Kettle Moraine, Madison East, Madison La Follette, Waukesha West
Last season, the Kettle Moraine Lasers defeated Catholic Memorial in five closely contested sets (25-27, 25-27, 28-26, 24-26, 15-12). The other two sectional semifinalists were Fort Atkinson and Waukesha West.
2009 RANDOM NOTES
- Catholic Memorial The Crusaders have a nice mix of youth and experience that should make them a legitimate contender. The two middle positions will likely be held down by a pair of seniors, Chad Bonis and Sam Spence. Also look for contributions from junior libero Dan Caspar and sophomore Trevor Novtny.
- Fort Atkinson New coach Mike Ziegler will likely look to returning outside Anthony Galston for offense. If the Blackhawks are going to succeed, however, the key will be replacing two key graduation losses in setter Joe Athas and 2008 first-team Big Eight all-conference middle Jason Bohn.
- Kettle Moraine The bad news is that all-state honoree Ean Reid has graduated, along with his 164 kills in 2008. The good news is that he was the only senior on last year's state-qualifying team. Returnees include last season's co-captain, senior Jonathan Tuttle, as well as senior setter Jim Mayenschein (324 assists in 2008), senior libero Mitch Rupp, junior middle Greg Duma and junior opposite Connor Keating.
- Madison East Second-year coach Tyler Cleveland returns four of six starters from last year's team, including junior libero Brad Fraser, the only sophomore in the Big Eigh last season to garner all-conference honors. The Purgolders will likely fill their middle position with senior Steve Horn, who finished fifth in the Big Eight in blocks last season. Junior outsides Joey Topping and Garrett Lytle, junior setter Joe Toman and sophomore right side Nick Herbig will likely round out the lineup for East. An early test will be at the Neenah Invite on September 12th.
- Madison La Follette With the exception of their libero, the Lancers bring back every single starter from last season's team, including first-team Big Eight all-conference outside Jon Dybevik, senior setter Jake Amend, senior middle Lucas Dubois and senior middle Jaren Singh. With all that experience, veteran coach Pat O'Leary could have a fantastic season.
- Waukesha West The Wolverines return six of seven starters on a team that consistently ranked in the top 10 last season. They'll look to senior libero Dan Simon and senior middle Ryan Solberg for leadership (both were honorable mention all-state and first-team Classic Eight all-conference in 2008). Senior setter Danny Jonas will also be able to dish out assists to sophomore outside Alex Jelacic and senior outside Stephen Waclawski. Senior Dan Warner will likely hold down the other middle position and senior Jake Schaefer should get plenty of swings at opposite. An early test will be at the Racine Invite on September 12.
OUR PREDICTION
Waukesha West over Catholic Memorial in five (unless, er, it's the other way around--this is a tough one)
2009 KEY LINKS
2009 KEY LINKS
- Rosters (to come)
- Catholic Memorial won the Kettle Moraine Invite, 9/5/09
9 comments:
agreed. this is going to be a loaded sectional, and could be one of the best in the state. maybe we can see someone different than the waukesha schools/kettle morraine come out of this sectional. my guess is that a madison school will come out of it this year AND next. lafollette this year, and east next. but waukesha will be loaded this season, and will be a tough sectional with a bunch of experienced teams.
I hope your kidding with the madison east and lafollette comment. Cuz that was pretty funny. This sectional is no doubt the toughest. I agree with Cheese n VB. West should make it out of this one. Km and Cmh will be good teams though.
We're allowing these comments, but we're starting to get nervous about the conversation staying positive in tone. Yeah, we're skittish like that.
No doubt this is the best sectional. I think LaFollette will be much improved from last year, and East will be better the year after definitly, but it will be tough to get past the Waukesha area teams.
No need to get mad (2nd comment) about someone predicting those teams. Who knows what is going to happen? The waukesha teams graduate most seniors, and according to this article, east looks young, lafollette loses alot. So who really knows?
Let's leave this discussion where it's at.
It would be great to see the madison teams put up a real fight in the sectional semifinal games, make each team earn there spot in the sectional final, but Waukesha West, KM, and CMH will be battling all year for the Classic 8 Conference title and on paper those teams look to be the strongest...I like the five set perdiction, hopefully it can be as crazy as the final last year.
waukesha west has too much talent I agree with them taking CMH in 5 but i have been hearing rumors that [one of CMH's players] is playing football
Note: In the above comment, we removed the actual name of the player mentioned. If the rumor being referred to proves to be accurate, we'll adjust our preview accordingly. Thanks.
was it a starter for cmh
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