Beyond The Stats Storylines for Wisconsin State Tournament

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We're back. The “Return to the Resch”.&nbsp; Teams from across the state will be heading to Green Bay to take on the Wisconsin State Tournament with the boys kicking off action on Wednesday and girls starting at 9 AM Thursday morning.&nbsp; Here are some thoughts and little tid bits of information to know heading into the week. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Bay Port and Green Bay NEW Lutheran Play Close To Home</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bay Port advanced to state in 2024 and is making its return in 2026.&nbsp; Setter [player_tooltip player_id='509331' first='Meghan' last='Bruss'] was a sophomore on the team and has shined as a senior where she was named FRCC Co-Player of the Year. She has over 2500 assists in her career and will head to Truman State.&nbsp; Green Bay NEW Lutheran will make the trip across town and play in the Division 5 semifinals Thursday morning when they take on [program_tooltip program_id='428569' first='Central' last='Wisconsin'] Christian.&nbsp; GB NEW Lutheran head coach Mike Schmidt has always worked at the state tournament with live stats and will have to find a sub for himself as he will get to be on the floor coaching his squad. The Blazers are 33-11 with a very balanced offense led by senior setter [player_tooltip player_id='762580' first='Olivia' last='Kirchner']</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Arrowhead Survives Conference Rival Oconomowoc To Reach State</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Tale as old as time with these Milwaukee powers having to fight each other to get to the state tournament.&nbsp; Oconomowoc had a streak of appearances at the Resch.&nbsp; Arrowhead was last at state in 2019 where they won the title over….Oconomowoc.&nbsp; These two Classic 8 teams split during the regular season setting up a winner take all situation in the sectional final with the Warhawks winning 3-1 with [player_tooltip player_id='810252' first='Addie' last='Merck'] and [player_tooltip player_id='486283' first='Natalie' last='Krogwold'] leading the way offensively combining for 21 kills while [player_tooltip player_id='509343' first='Taylor' last='Wold'] had 34 assists. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>New Division, No Problem</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Barron out of Western Wisconsin has quite the journey the past few years.&nbsp; They won the D4 state championship in 2024, bumped up a class in 2025 and lost in the semifinals, bumped up again for 2026 and made their way back to the state tournament in dramatic fashion.&nbsp; They had to travel to Mosinee who was ranked number one most of the season and defeated them on their home court in five sets. The senior duo of [player_tooltip player_id='565640' first='Alexis' last='Halverson'] and [player_tooltip player_id='590014' first='Abby' last='Miller'] led the way with Halverson collecting 25 kills and Miller with 33 digs. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Who Has The Longest Trip To Green Bay? </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Seneca! Seneca is out of Southwest Wisconsin where they are champions of Section 3 where they defeated Athens 3-1. This team is 31-1 and led by junior [player_tooltip player_id='829612' first='Anne' last='Manning'] who is averaging over five kills per set.&nbsp; The last trip Seneca made to the state tournament was in 2016. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Chippewa Area Finding Success</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I'm not native to Western Wisconsin so I'll use the “Chippewa Area” loosely.&nbsp; Chippewa Falls punched their ticket after a big two days.&nbsp; They defeated Big Rivers Conference rivals in River Falls and Hudson to advance to the D1 state tournament.&nbsp; McDonnell Catholic out of Chippewa Falls advanced to state by sweeping Edgar.&nbsp; If we extend the radius out of Chippewa Falls, there is Stanley-Boyd 25 miles to the East and to the North there is Barron and Turtle Lake.&nbsp; I29 to Green Bay is going to be busy this week! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Stanley-Boyd Bringing a lot of Lew</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Stanley-Boyd has been a team to know all season in [player_tooltip player_id='807989' first='Kelly' last='Lew'] and [player_tooltip player_id='1038455' first='Amanda' last='Lew'].&nbsp; [player_tooltip player_id='807989' first='Kelly' last='Lew'] is a senior who is averaging 4.7 kills per set while [player_tooltip player_id='1038455' first='Amanda' last='Lew'] is a sophomore averaging 3.5 kills per set.&nbsp; [player_tooltip player_id='807989' first='Kelly' last='Lew'] has over 1300 kills in her career. The two combined for 24 kills (12 each) in their sectional final sweep over Fall Creek. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>She's a Freshman! </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are going to be quite a few freshmen making their state tournament debut this week.&nbsp; Here are ones to know: </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Maddie Jansen - Marathon - 299 kills, 3.1 per set</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Avrie Knorn - Chippewa Falls - 245 kills, 2.2 per set</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='1038083' first='Annie' last='Edwards'] - Barron - 254 kills, 3.13, 58 Blocks</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='859428' first='Camryn' last='Carr'] - DSHA - 476 assists</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Double The State Tournament Fun</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The boys state tournament is back as well at the Resch Center.&nbsp; We have a couple of teams who will get to watch their boys and girls teams play this week. Arrowhead, Catholic Memorial, and Kimberly could have a busy week! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>State Championship Rematch In Favor of the Phoenix</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are always going to be matchups where they happen too early.&nbsp; We've seen that each year across multiple divisions.&nbsp; This past Saturday was a rematch of the D3 state championship from last season between Manitowoc Lutheran and Watertown&nbsp; Luther Prep.&nbsp; Manitowoc Lutheran won the 2025 championship (after their 2024 state title), but this past weekend went in favor of Watertown Luther Prep in a five set thriller winning 16-14.&nbsp; [player_tooltip player_id='734119' first='Lorelei' last='Candler'] was on fire this past Saturday.&nbsp; She had 19 kills, 19 digs, and 25 assists. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four Sisters - A Whole Lot of State Tournaments</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='809331' first='Finley' last='Van Lannen'] and [player_tooltip player_id='805698' first='Harper' last='Van Lannen'] will be returning to the state tournament for Kimberly.&nbsp; There is some family lore here where their two older sisters Bella Van Lannen and Emerson Van Lannen played in multiple state tournaments for Appleton North, winning the alternate season state championship in the spring of 2021 and followed that up with a state runner up finish in the 2021.&nbsp; Between the four sisters we are looking at over 10 state appearances. Finley and Harper will be looking to hold up a trophy at the end of the week for the Makers who are the second seed heading into the week. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Know The Name - [player_tooltip player_id='812924' first='Ella' last='Myers']</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I was able to take my high school team to the WVCA Scrimmage in Sun Prairie at the end of July.&nbsp; In these summer events, we don't know much about the other team.&nbsp; We played a team with pink jerseys and I was like “Who is this?”.&nbsp; They were scrappy, took big swings, played with a fun energy.&nbsp; That would be River Valley.&nbsp; And they had a middle blocker who could attack out of the middle, but then she would step back in serve receive, she could do anything.&nbsp; [player_tooltip player_id='812924' first='Ella' last='Myers'] was dominant.&nbsp; The Edgewood commit is a steal for that program.&nbsp; This high school season she has racked up 557 kills, good for 5.4 kills per set and has 157 blocks.&nbsp; Those numbers are unreal. When [player_tooltip player_id='812924' first='Ella' last='Myers'] is on the court - anything can happen. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Xavier Returns With New Crew</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Xavier ran the table in 2022 and 2023 where they dominated the competition.&nbsp; That bumped them up to D1 in 2024, made the sectional final in D2 in 2025, and are back to the D2 state tournament in 2026.&nbsp; These athletes would have been in middle school the last time the Hawks won a gold ball.&nbsp; They have plenty of youth in this team where they are led by [player_tooltip player_id='545532' first='Rose' last='Kendall'], the junior left handed right side who is averaging three kills per set. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->