Sunset Slam Session 1 Brackets and Stories Behind The Names
The start of the Wisconsin High School season is delayed for a few weeks or for some schools, quite a few months. With the change, there is still an opportunity to play some summer volleyball. Prep Dig will be kicking off the Sunset Slam Session 1 on Wednesday, August 19 with two waves, four brackets, and a whole lot of top competition. Take a quick peek at the brackets and the names behind the brackets.
Brackets are named after conferences where plenty of Wisconsin prep athletes have gone on to further their college careers. Some of these conferences may be new names to these athletes as well as the schools, but if athletes want to play at the next level, there are plenty of great options all within the state as well as bordering states (Don’t worry college coaches, we have another week of events to include some more conferences).
The GLIAC Bracket
The GLIAC is an NCAA Division 2 Conference that is home to Wisconsin’s only Division 2 program in Parkside located in Kenosha along Lake Michigan. Many of these schools are located in Michigan or Wisconsin with many Wisconsin prep athletes competing in this conference. Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan located in the Upper Peninsula are home to plenty of former prep Wisconsin athletes. Michigan Tech reached the Midwest Region Semifinals in 2019. Pulaski and Wisconsin Volleyball Academy alum Olivia Ghormley has been a two time All American for the Huskies.
The teams competing this Wednesday in the GLIAC bracket will bring a high level of experience at the state level with Howards Grove and Luxemburg-Casco being defending state champions combined with other top D1 and D2 teams in the state who will look to make a run to be some of the top programs in 2020 or spring of 2021.
The WIAC Bracket
Wisconsin’s conference of public colleges throughout the state that have a strong tradition at the national level with multiple final four and even national championship appearances. In 2019, UW-Whitewater was the regular season winner of the conference, while UW-Stevens Point took home the conference tournament crown. Point would go on to finish as a regional runner up while UW-Eau Claire was a final four team in 2018. This past season April Gehl who prepped at Hilbert High School in the Fox Valley area earned 1st Team All American honors as well as Midwest Region Player of the Year.
In this bracket, there will be a blend of teams from across the state as well with Prentice in Northwest Wisconsin, an enrollment of 150 students and Mukwonago from the Milwaukee area who has an enrollment of 1600. Plenty of mini matchups that have stories that will be fun to see develop of teams who typically wouldn’t play each other during the regular season.
The NACC
The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) is an NCAA Division 3 Conference comprised of schools in Wisconsin and Illinois. The Wisconsin schools include:
Alverno College – Milwaukee
Concordia University – Wisconsin – Mequon
Edgewood College – Madison
Lakeland University – Plymouth
Marian University – Fond du Lac
MSOE – Milwaukee
Wisconsin Lutheran College – Milwaukee
*St. Norbert out of De Pere will be joining this conference in 2021.
Aurora took home the conference title in 2019, defeating CUW in the championship. Some of the former Wisconsin prep athletes who took home All-Conference honors were Kendall Stribling (CUW – Whitnall), Mackenzie Doherty (Edgewood – Wisconsin Heights), Neenah Primas (Lakeland – Sheboygan South), Ally Goba (WLC – Luther Prep), and Grace Tomahave (WLC – Luther Prep).
This bracket has a blend of athletes who will be fun to watch with Sydney Lewellin Sydney Lewellin S Lake Mills | 2022 State WI leading Lake Mills as a favorite where she can set and swing. Molly Rohde Molly Rohde 5'11" | MB Hortonville | 2023 State WI , a dynamic middle from the Class of 2023 will be playing for The Attackers which has athletes who will attend Hortonville High School.
The Midwest/CCIW
The Midwest Conference and the CCIW also have a blend of colleges from Wisconsin and Illinois that compete in NCAA Division 3. Some of the top private institutions in the Midwest, these schools also provide top volleyball where they have experienced great success at the national level. These two conferences, as well as the NACC and WIAC are often competing for the same recruits as well as playing each other during non-conference events.
The Midwest Conference (Wisconsin Schools):
Beloit College – Beloit
Lawrence University – Appleton
Ripon College – Ripon
St. Norbert College – De Pere (Moving to NACC in 2021)
CCIW:
Carroll University – Waukesha
Carthage – Kenosha
St. Norbert has finished in the top two of the Midwest Conference for multiple years with a national tournament appearance in 2016. This past season the Green Knights had multiple All-Conference nods for former Wisconsin prep players in Grace Baumann Grace Baumann 5'6" | OH West Bend West | 2018 State WI (West Bend West), Emily Rohloff (Appleton North), and Liz Maastricht Liz Maastricht 5'5" | DS/L Sun Prairie | 2018 State WI who was also voted Newcomer of the Year.
In the CCIW, there were plenty of Wisconsin natives who earned All Conference awards that include Shannon Kebisek (Carthage – Brookfield Central), Ellie LeCount (Carthage – Racine St. Catherine’s), Rose Syverson (Millikin – Waukesha West), and Erika Dunnam (Carroll – Shawano). Carthage once again proved their dominance and continued their tradition, winning the conference tournament while advancing to the NCAA Tournament and finishing in the final four in the country ending with a 31-4 record.
In this bracket, there are top players to keep tabs on like Green Bay commit Cora Behnke Cora Behnke 6'0" | OH Oconto | 2021 State WI who will be leading the way for the Northern Aces and her club teammate and Milwaukee commit, Brianna Geurts Brianna Geurts 6'0" | MB De Pere | 2021 State WI will be looking to lead the Cardinals. Another player to keep tabs on will be Kennedy Martin, a 6’5 outside hitter who is a new addition to De Pere High School and will be one of the top Sophomores in the state. Watchout for the Phoenix of Luther Prep who are led by all-around players in Andrea Bortulin and Grace Kieselhorst.