Boys and Girls Share the State’s Volleyball Stage
Photo: Megan Piton of Appleton North and Avery Pohlman of Appleton North (Photo Cred: Scott Rohloff Photography)
For the first time, sectional finals will be a stage shared with some of the top girls and boys volleyball teams across the state, a prelude to a joint state tournament in Green Bay at the Resch Center with the Boys State Tournament kicking off the weekend starting Thursday, November 8 at 10 AM.
Growing the Game
Boys volleyball is on the up and up not only in Wisconsin, but across the nation. Within the state, colleges such as St. Norbert, Viterbo, and Edgewood have added a men’s program that will compete at the varsity level in NAIA or NCAA Division 3. Saturday night, there will be sectional finals held at sites to give some added exposure to the boys game at Green Bay Preble, Waterford, West Bend East, Sun Prairie, Waukesha South, Wisconsin Lutheran, and East Troy.
Programs Sending Girls and Boys Programs to Sectional Finals
For Kettle Moraine, Arrowhead, Kimberly, Indian Trail, and Appleton North, they will be featuring their boys and girls programs in a sectional final. Prior to this season, the first round of the girls state tournament was played the same date as the boys sectional final. If both programs from the high school were to advance to those rounds, it was near impossible to catch both teams in action.
Appleton North and Kimberly will have a double dose Saturday with the Appleton North and Kimberly boys squaring off at 4:30 at Green Bay Preble with the Appleton North girls taking on Kimberly at 7:00 at Preble as well. These programs are all too familiar with each other on the boys and girls side with conference titles and big sectional matchups coming between the two. On the boys side, Kimberly won the outright FVA title with North coming in second. The Papermakers were FVA Champions in 2018 and finished second in the state to Germantown. On the girls side, Kimberly has defeated Appleton North in the sectional final the past two seasons. This year, Appleton North took home the FVA crown and will be the top seed heading into the match. Since 2013, Kimberly or Appleton North have advanced from Section 2 to the state tournament.
Arrowhead will be sending both programs to the sectional final with the Arrowhead girls program being the top in the state. They will take on an all too familiar opponent in DSHA, a team they have faced multiple times throughout the year. Their sectional final will be held at Cedarburg while the Arrowhead boys will take on defending state champion Germantown at a sectional final at West Bend (West Bend to Cedarburg is about 20 minutes from each other).
Kettle Moraine will be sending both of their teams to the sectional final with the girls program taking on Mukwonago at Waukesha South and the boys program taking on top seed in Section 7, Middleton. The Kettle Moraine girls team is the top seed in Section 8 and narrowly escaped with a win in the sectional semifinal with a win over Waukesha West.
Kenosha Indian Trail boys have the top seed in Section 5 and will take on the two seed, Racine Horlick at Waterford. The Hawks have been a consistent force on the boys side, while this year they are also enjoying success on the girls side. The girls volleyball team from Indian Trail will be in the sectional final against Union Grove at Waterford as well.
Sectional Final Sites Doubling For Boys and Girls
Green Bay Preble
Boys: Appleton North vs. Kimberly
Girls: Appleton North vs. Kimberly
West Bend East
Boys: Germantown vs. Arrowhead
Girls: Oconomowoc vs. Manitowoc Lincoln
Sun Prairie
Boys: Middleton vs. Kettle Moraine
Girls: Waunakee vs. Sun Prairie
Waukesha South
Boys: Catholic Memorial vs. Waukesha West
Girls: Kettle Moraine vs. Mukwonago
Waterford
Boys: Kenosha Indian Trail vs. Racine Horlick
Girls: Kenosha Indian Trail vs. Union Grove
Westosha Central
Boys: Muskego vs. Franklin
Girls: Burlington vs. Janesville Parker
Wisconsin Lutheran
Boys: Marquette vs. Shorewood
Girls: Wisconsin Lutheran vs. St. Thomas More
East Troy
Boys: Brookfield East vs. Wauwatosa East
Girls: McFarland vs. Lakeside Lutheran