Girls fall to Lakeside Lutheran in sectional semifinal
By Dan Truttschel
Correspondent
A No. 2 seed in the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Division 2 regional tournament left the East Troy girls volleyball team with a bit of a chip on its shoulder.
That was bad news for the Trojans’ three opponents last week.
East Troy, ranked second in the state by the Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association, swept its way to a regional title to put itself within two victories from the school’s fourth state tournament appearance.
The Trojans (29-8 overall) posted victories over 15th-seeded Clinton (25-8, 25-11, 25-9), seventh-seeded Watertown Luther Prep (25-12, 27-25, 25-15) and third-seeded Edgerton (25-12, 25-10, 25-23).
“(The girls) were pretty well focused,” East Troy coach Scott Nagorski said. “They knew going in what we wanted. We wanted the one seed, and they were a little disappointed that we got the two, so it was kind of a (way) to show we’re deserving of that seed. They kept that focus throughout.”
The first two sets in Saturday’s regional final win over Edgerton played out just as Nagorski hoped.
“We were familiar with Edgerton with them being in the conference, so we knew what we wanted to do, and we executed really well right out of the gate,” Nagorski said. “We put the pressure on that way.”
In the third set, the Tide took some of the momentum from the Trojans, who needed to overcome a couple calls that didn’t go their way, Nagorski said.
But in the end, they held on to punch their sectional tickets.
“It was a little bit of referee-momentum kind of a thing where there were a couple of calls they reversed that kind of gave (Edgerton) a little boost,” Nagorski said. “That had our girls a little frustrated. We were playing catch up in that one and had to work through that.”
Leaders against Edgerton were Briana Scuric (11 kills, 10 digs), Julian Friedrichs (eight kills, four blocks), Katie Winkler (five kills), Mati Jakscht (three aces, 13 digs), Emily Wendt (five digs, 11 assists), Katie Zewiske (four digs) and Isabelle Martino (18 assists).
The regional semifinal two days earlier had a similar tone as the final – only this time, it was the middle game where the Trojans were pushed a bit.
“(In the middle game), we were making some foolish mistakes, especially in our serve game,” Nagorski said. “That gave them a chance to build some momentum. We had to stretch that one out and fought through (it).”
Leading the way were Scuric (18 kills, 12 digs), Winkler (nine kills), Zewiske (five kills, eight digs), Jakscht (five aces, 16 digs), Wendt (four aces, 20 assists), Friedrichs (three blocks) and Martino (18 assists).
The playoff opener last Tuesday was in East Troy’s control right from the start, as the Trojans cruised to the three-set win.
Leaders were Scuric (10 kills, six digs), Martino (10 kills, three aces, 18 assists), Winkler (seven kills), Friedrichs (five kills), Wendt (three aces, 14 assists) and Jakscht (14 digs).
Sectional semifinal
East Troy lost to top-seeded Lakeside Lutheran Thursday night, ending their season in the sectional semifinal. See next week’s edition of the newspaper for full coverage on the Trojans sectional battle.
