Volleyball team faces Oconto Falls today
By Derek Kiesow
Correspondent
Local volleyball fans skipped over trick-or-treating this year for a treat of a different kind. The East Troy High School girls volleyball team was able to sweep rival Catholic Memorial on Halloween, Oct. 31.
The match was thought to be a much tougher battle than it ended as Catholic Memorial ousted the Trojans the last two years in the playoffs prior. This year the tides were turned as the senior loaded Trojan team was able to pick on the freshman-heavy Crusader squad.
East Troy also called upon the motivation from the film “Miracle,” a story about the 1980 men’s hockey team, which under the direction of Herb Brooks, defeated the heavily favored Soviet team in route to a gold medal. The team began their pre-match routine wearing Red, White, and Blue USA warm-ups.
Head coach Jeremy Weis said that the shirts were a surprise for the girls.
“It was a great way to symbolize what they have been working towards all year. They were not just playing for themselves anymore; they were playing for their town and school as well,” he said.
Katie Hodge got the Trojans off to a fast start with one of her best serving performances of the season to date. The early lead continued to grow as the Trojans never looked back, taking the first game victory 25-16.
The second set was a much closer affair as both teams battled with back-and-forth volleyball. The match, which had been tied at 20, slowly swung in favor of Catholic Memorial as they held their first game point of the night up 24-22.
East Troy dug deep and never gave the Crusaders the final point tying the score at 24-24 before completing the comeback 29-27.
Weis credits the situations that he has put the team through in practice, both mentally and physically, as the reason that East Troy is able to take their play to a next level when needed. “It just goes to show that what we have been working on all year has worked for the team.”
After the tough loss in the second game, Catholic Memorial seemed to be mentally exhausted and in no shape for the uphill battle towards a comeback. Catholic Memorial folded under the pressure as Myranda Dallas used a powerful serving run to get East Troy off to a commanding lead. Catholic Memorial never got back into the final game as the Black and Gold took the win, 25-16.
M.E. Dodge led the Trojan attack with 15 kills. Brittney Jakscht notched 33 assists as Mykie Olsen dug up 17 balls. Bryzena Santos added four blocks as Dodge, Katie Hodges and Alyssa Scuric each had two aces to round out the leaders.
Kettle Moraine
The win allowed East Troy to travel down the road to play Kettle Moraine Lutheran, defending Division 2 state champs, in Elkhorn on Nov. 2.
The largest Trojan crowd of the season by far was stunned early as the upset minded Chargers were able to jump all over East Troy. Before East Troy could catch their breath they found themselves down 0-4 and trying to regroup as Weis was forced to call an early timeout.
The timeout did little for the Trojans as KML continued to play strong volleyball. The Black and Gold did little to help the situation as they played their worst volleyball of the postseason so far, filled with errors and missed opportunities. Kettle Moraine became the first Division 2 team in 2013 to take a game from the Trojans 18-25.
“They put a lot of pressure on us right from the start,” noted Weis. “I felt that Kettle Moraine Lutheran played us really well as they bettered every ball leading to very aggressive swings.”
Game two was almost a mirror image of the first as KML was once again able to get to another fast start, taking a large 5-1 lead over East Troy. The lead grew to 13-6.
The large pro-Trojan crowd took the matters into their own hands as they tried anything to help the Trojans get back into the match. “USA” chants could be heard from the East Troy student section urging the Trojans to compete out of a mid-game timeout.
The Trojans were able to use this support to take their first lead of the match at 19-18. Each team continued to battle but East Troy was able to squeeze out a game-two win by the slimmest of margins, 27-25.
KML ran away with the third set early but the Trojans attempted to steal the game late. East Troy found itself down as much as six but was able to cut the lead down to 20-22 before KML took the game 21-25, moving them within a game of a second-straight state berth.
Finding themselves down but definitely not out, the Trojans were forced to once again take their play to another level.
“I just kept demanding that they play the way that they were taught,” said Weis. “All of a sudden, we figured out that if we play like we knew we could and with few less errors, we could do this.”
A rotation change made all the difference early for East Troy as it was able to get off to an early lead for the first time all night. KML could feel the momentum shift in the gym and took a timeout trailing 17-11. The Trojans continued to play at their dominating level late in the game, taking the set 25-18. With the match tied 2-2 both teams squared off for the decisive fifth-game tiebreak played to only 15 points.
Early in the final game the Trojan block came alive as Alyssa Scuric floored a KML swing followed by an overpass kill by M.E. Dodge. The crowd rose to their feet for the Trojans and KML, under the pressure of the night, could feel their chances of repeating as state champs slipping away. KML would do their best to compete but a long serve run by Bryzena Santos put the game out of reach as a kill by her sister, Katrina Santos, ended the match 15-9.
Dodge led the Trojans with 18 kills as Brittney Jakscht had 51 assists. Mykie Olsen added 32 digs while Bryzena had 2.5 blocks.
East Troy, holding a perfect 42-0 record will now compete at state for the first time since 1987. They will play Oconto Falls, a team that took out perennial powerhouse Waupun in four sets.
The Trojans play Friday Nov. 8, at the Resch Center in Green Bay at 4 p.m. The winner will move on to the state final that will be played Saturday, Nov. 9, at 2 p.m.
