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I love Grantsburg Volleyball. They play hard. They know what they're doing. They win. Simple.

Wissports.net loves 'em, too as they take the top spot in Jay Messar's rankings. Here's his rankings.

Checking out last year's final rankings from the Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association's website I noticed something interesting. Of course Grantsburg was ranked #1 as they won the championship and Cuba City got second billing, but #4 was not one of the state participants. It was Washburn. If you remember last year, the Washburn Castle Guards gave the Grantsburg Pirates their biggest test of the year. In fact either team could've gone to state, it was that tight of a Sectional Semi-final.

It was cool to see Washburn get some love by the coaches. They deserve it.

Here's my play-by-play schedule for the next few weeks on 105.7 WXCX (football starts at 7, volleyball at 7:30)

As of now we only have the one volleyball match scheduled, but it is my understanding that we will be bringing you many more volleyball matches as we get into this season.
 

Today was supposed to be the airing of the D3 State Championship match between Grantsburg and Cuba City. It was rescheduled to air tomorrow (Sunday, November 22) at 4pm. It's channel 40 for those with Grantsburg cable. Thanks to Deb Johnson for the heads up!

If you're interested my most recent column has been uploaded to the Burnett County Sentinel's website. It's about my wife and me going to state volleyball… alone. 

How in the world do the Pirates only get four players on the all-conference team?!? Out of 23 all-conference players named, only four are from Grantsburg.

They only went undefeated in the conference.

No conference team scored more than 19 points on them and that only happened once.

The average score of a conference set was 25-11!

The four girls who were recognized as all-conference (Emily Cole, Kortney Morrin, Annie Palmquist and Lauren Romanowski) were also recognized as part of the all-state tournament team. Three of them (Emily, Kortney and Annie) were ALL-STATE.

You're telling me that this conference is so loaded with talent that there was just no room for Larissa Wilhelm? or Kallie Thoreson? or Tiff Meyer? or Sarah Wald?

It is ridiculous that some of these players are not getting recognized! All of them would start and be one of the best players on ANY OTHER TEAM in this conference.

Look at the Flyway Conference all-conference team. They have Laconia (Grantsburg annihilated them in the state semi-finals) and Kettle Moraine Lutheran. KML is a volleyball powerhouse and won the conference. Laconia finished third. That conference recognized SIX Laconia players.

This rant of mine is not intended to take away from the other 19 girls who were recognized by the coaches… it's just to say that the process is flawed when a team can have such a dominating season and have clearly superior talent yet only four are recognized.

To me it is unfortunate.

Set your TiVo because Fox Sports Wisconsin will be airing the WIAA state final match between Grantsburg and Cuba City on Saturday, Nov. 21 at 4:30 p.m.

It took a while, but the West Lakeland conference volleyball team has been announced and here it is…

Grantsburg
Emily Cole, junior
Kortney Morrin, junior
Annie Palmquist, senior
Lauren Romanowski, senior

Clayton
Annie Grossenbacher
Ashley Grossenbacher
Lindsey LaBlanc
Krystal Kohnen – honorable mention

Clear Lake
Rachel Norby – honorable mention
Jaici Vangsness – honorable mention

Frederic
Chrissy Chenal

Luck
Morgan Denny, junior

Shell Lake
Ashley Anderson
Stephanie Clark – honorable mention

Siren
Carley Emery – honorable mention

St. Croix Falls
Sarah Petznick
Megan Yunker

Turtle Lake
Ashley Lahti
Tricia Hanson – honorable mention
Alex Tschida – honorable mention

Unity
Crystal Donahue – honorable mention

Webster
Mary Johnson
Siiri Larsen – honorable mention

The Burnett County Sentinel recently changed the format of their site which made some things inaccessible, including my recent column about my daughter and her relationship with Sarah Wald.

Thanks to Todd Beckmann over there for fixing that issue and now allowing everyone to read it.

It is a huge honor to be named to the all-state team. The WVCA (Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association) select from the entire state, regardless of division. Grantsburg landed THREE all-staters.

First Team: Kortney Morrin

Third Team: Annie Palmquist

Honorable Mention: Emily Cole

Morrin and Cole aren’t done either, they’re both juniors.

Excellent job, girls… well deserved!

The Pirates placed four girls on the WVCA all-state-tournament team. They are Kortney Morrin, Annie Palmquist, Lauren Romanowski, and Emily Cole.

Way to go girls!