Divison 1 Round 1: Who's Moving On?

Tonight was the first round of playoffs for Division 1 teams and man was it a good one. Playoffs are when we see the true colors of teams. The grit, the passion, the determination all comes out and everything is left out on the court. <h2>Pewaukee Knocked Out Brookfield East</h2> This 4 set match had some large momentum swings. Pewaukee came out swinging beating East 25-12 in the first set. But Brookfield East was not going down without a fight and came back to beat the Pirates 25-14 in the second set. Pewaukee took sets three and four 25-20 and 25-12 respectively. Senior captain Hannah Siebert contributed 12 kills, 4 blocks, and 12 digs and was a leader on the court. Sophomore Ally Longden led the team in the backcourt with 22 digs and freshman Katie Gund had 15 assists, 14 digs, and 6 kills. They left the match with momentum which they will hopefully utilize when they face off against #1 ranked Arrowhead next. <h2>Cedarburg Demolished Milwaukee Madison</h2> It isn’t often you see a sweep like this in Division 1 playoffs, but Cedarburg came out on fire on Thursday night. The swept Milwaukee Madison with scores of 25-4, 25-0, 25-3. WOW. Junior Tori Lepold had 11 aces closely followed by senior Madison Bell who had 9. Freshmen classmates Helena Ashely and Autumn Daute each had 6 kills. Tori also led in assists with 14 on the night. Cedarburg will go head to head with Germantown in the next round of playoffs. <h2>Germantown Swept Homestead</h2> Another sweep going into round two of playoffs! Germantown took down homestead in an intense match that was truly a battle of defenses. Germantown’s Amber Bischel (Prep Dig Rank #21) had 23 digs and 15 service receptions. Sophomore Tatum Catalano (Prep Dig Rank #6) had 10 service receptions with no errors and contributed 7 kills. Junior classmates Emily Galaszewski and Julia Maas had 16 and 14 assists respectively. Senior Hannah Brown led the team on offense with 9 kills. <h2>Menomonee Falls Took Out Wauwatosa West</h2> This was another battle of momentum with scores swinging both ways throughout the night. Senior Ashley Guenveur (Prep Dig Rank #16, Committed to Troy) was ready for a fight though. She came out and had an amazing 23 kills with a 0.477 hitting percentage. She also contributed 12 digs and 16 service receptions with no errors. Another notable player from the night is freshman Taylor Larson who racked up 13 kills, 3 aces, 12 digs, and 12 service receptions. Senior setter Shea Supa had 21 assists and sophomore Kady Stigler led the team on defense with 17 digs and 22 service receptions. This was a powerful win for Menomonee Falls! <h2>Battle of the Centrals</h2> Brookfield Central and West Allis Central duked it out with Brookfield coming away with the sweep. What do I love about Brookfield Central? Their stats were spread out across the board with nine different players contributing kills and ten players with dig stats. Talk about a team effort! Freshman McKenna Wucherer (Committed to Minnesota) led the team on offense with 7 kills. Junior Kelsey Brunner had 7 aces. And sophomore Cat Uczen led the backcourt with 9 digs. Freshman setter Taylor Kebisek had 19 assists. This was a true team effort for the Lancers! <h2>Hamilton Pushed Past West Allis Hale</h2> Hale put up a fight, but Hamilton worked like clockwork on Thursday night defeating the Huskies 25-13, 25-12, 25-12. Junior Sarah Schrader (Prep Dig Rank #26) leads the team in kills (289), digs (378), service receptions (449), and aces (75) this season. Sophomore Lakyn Graves (Prep Dig Rank #14) leads the team in blocks and sophomore Janelle Stuempfig in assists. Hamilton will face off against Menomonee Falls on Saturday night. <h2>Waukesha West Kept Milwaukee-Washington Co-op Under 10</h2> Waukesha West has been making a name for themselves since this summer when they won the Prep Dig Summer League and their Preseason Tournament. They also won the Sprawl Qualifier earlier this season. They brought that same heat last night to their match against Milwaukee-Washington Co-op. Sophomore Alexis Boling (Prep Dig Rank #7) had 10 kills and senior Anna Nerad (Committed to UW-Milwaukee) followed closely with 8. Anna also led the team with digs. Senior Darragh Dixon made a huge impact with 13 assists and 12 service receptions. Some other teams to watch as we move forward in playoffs season is Muskego who overtook Milwaukee Reagan last night; Oak Creek who swept Racine Park; Franklin who knocked out Milwaukee Hamilton; Wauwatosa East who beat Milwaukee Bradley Tech, Whitefish Bay who won a tough 5 set battle against Waukesha south;and Greenfield who won their battle against South Milwaukee.