Brackets Are Posted: Five Thoughts From Fitz

They’re official! Brackets are out. Enough speculation of who is going where and what seed everyone will fall into, all division brackets are live and ready to be dissected. First off, I know there might be some questions about how seeds are made. No, the WIAA does not have a committee like the NCAA Football Committee or NCAA Tournament to see what seeds they get, the coaches are actually ones who seed the teams. They will have a live meeting, conference call, or even through email where they will seed each other. If there is a discrepancy of a seed, for example if Team A thinks they should be higher than Team B, they will have a vote from the group on who will be a higher seed. Teams can talk about quality wins, injuries, strength of schedule, head to head match ups, etc. Some meetings there could be no disagreements and its in and out pretty quick while others can be a whole domino effect. Here are some of my initial observations taking a look at the brackets. The Number 1’s: In Division 1, the one region where I wasn’t really quite sure was Sectional 3, the Madison area sectional. Sun Prairie defeated Waunakee in their one match this season at the Charger Rally, but then again Waunakee was 40-3 and this weekend, they are heading to Plainfield Central High School in Illinois to take on some of the top schools in the Chicago area. If seeding plays out (I will use that term often) that puts Sun Prairie against Holmen in the sectional semifinals and Waunakee in a tough matchup with Verona who is 24-3. However, "if seeding plays out" Sun Prairie would play Waunakee at Waunakee to go to state, which brings me to my next observation. Home Court Advantage?: Taking a look at matchups, if potential seeding plays out there could be some home court advantages in favor of the lower seeded team. For example, Catholic Memorial has a one seed and would have to travel to Wisconsin Lutheran, a two seed for a sectional semifinal. Division 1 is a whole new can of worms in multiple sectionals. Burlington is a one seed, and if seedings play out they will play at the two seed in Westosha Central. Same goes for Sun Prairie, they are a one seed and would have to play at Waunakee to go to the state tournament. Arrowhead is a one seed and would have to play at DSHA, the two seed for the sectional final. In Division 3, Grantsburg, a one seed could play a sectional semifinal at the two seed, Clear Lake. Also in D3, Lake Country Lutheran, a one seed, could play Waterloo with the winner playing at another one seed in Wisconsin Heights. Oconto in D3 could potentially play Crivitz on their homecourt in the sectional semifinal or if St. Marys were to make an upset run, they could host the number one team in the state, Stratford. Gyms are locked in extremely far in advance and sites rotate. This is by no means an editorial, but it seems like there should be a reward if you are a one seed by playing a home match or at the very least a neutral site for a game to go to state. Division 2 Balance: There are a lot of really good teams in Division 2 and seeing them balanced out, there is no one with a cake walk to state. In Sectional 1, there is Bloomer, Merrill, Mosinee, St. Croix Central, Ellsworth, West Salem, and Black River Falls who have all beat up on each other throughout the year and to see who comes out of that section will be really interesting. Same goes for Sectional 3. Yes, East Troy would be a favorite, but will have to get to the sectional final with potential matchups with Lakeside Lutheran, Lake Mills, or Luther Prep with McFarland or Edgewood on the other side being the top two seeds. In Section 2 Little Chute only has one loss, but went to five sets with Luxemburg-Casco, but also has Xavier and Chilton in their regional which have played tough schedules all year. Then there is Sectional 4. Take your pick between teams who have been going up against tough competition and beating top teams all year long in Catholic Memorial, Wisconsin Lutheran, Kettle Moraine Lutheran, and University School of Milwaukee. What Does a 3 seed look like?: Division 1, yikes! There are some stacked Sectionals and others that are pretty top heavy compared to others. I’m going to single a couple teams out as far as three seeds that are going to be extremely tough to beat. Cedarburg - a top ten team the second half of the year, they can hurt you in so many ways with two Division 1 middles in Kiara Reinhardt (Creighton) and Maddie Barber (Villanova) and Freshman phenom Aspen Jankowski. For sure a state caliber team, but has the likes of Arrowhead, DSHA, Brookfield Central, Sussex Hamilton, and a potential regional final with Germantown? Germantown is so athletic and has the skills to beat really good teams. Neenah - Two division one players heading to Loyola in Addie Barnes and Kayla Kraus. Barnes is returning from an injury, getting back to full strength and at earlier this season was ranked number one after beating Arrowhead at the Joust. A sectional semifinal against Oconomowoc was actually a state tournament matchup for Barnes and Kraus when they were Freshmen. Union Grove - With Olivia Dir and Karlee Lois this teams has a lot of firepower. A potential matchup with Westosha Central in the semifinals will be dynamite. This could very well be a rematch of the best of the Southern Lakes Conference. Just for fun, it would be interesting to see how one of these three seeds would do if they were placed in another region. Forget The Tournaments: The atmosphere is so different in these regional and sectional matches than a Saturday tournament. In these matches there are student sections, there are starting lineups, there is a build up the day before. For Saturday tournaments its mostly parents in the crowd, some of these teams are playing their fifth or sixth match of the day. What it comes down to is how teams perform when faced with adversity, a little bit of pressure, and what role players step up to give the extra boost. Great players are going to get their kills, their digs, and assists, but what is fun is knowing that any role player can have a night and be the one to put their team over the edge and into that next round. https://www.wiaawi.org/Sports/GirlsVolleyball.aspx See you in Green Bay :)