We are Grantsburg Subscribe

Here’s WSN’s Jay Messar’s prediction on how the state semi-finals will pan out for Division 3. I think he’s right on, but we’ll see.

Here’s the rosters/stats for the D3 participants as well. I’m pretty sure it’s ok for me to post these and if it’s not I’ll remove them and replace them with the love letter the WIAA sends me.

We’re only a few days away from the beginning of the volleyball state tournament in Green Bay.

The four teams in the field are:

For a quick preview of all these teams, here is what the WIAA released.

Quick takes:

Kortney Morrin and Anne Palmquist are studs.  Both of them have over 300 kills (the next closest is 290 [for D3 state qualifiers] and it drops quickly from there).

Kortney hits at a .403 rate and Anne hits at a whopping .474 rate. (Kallie Thoreson is hitting at a .425 rate, with about one fourth the attempts as the other two.)

By comparison the best kill percentage by any other girl in division 3 is .390 by a gal from Cuba City (Katie Langmeier, 180 kills). After that it goes down to .356 by another gal from Cuba City.

The Pirates, as a team are averaging 11.81 kills per game. The next closest is Cuba City with 10.3.

Auburndale has 21 more total kills than Grantsburg (1084-1063), but the Apaches have played 22 more sets than have the Pirates.

Grantsburg has 396 aces. The next closest is 370 by Auburndale. After that Cuba City has 247 and Laconia has only 175.

Grantsburg has the fewest sets played in the Division 3 realm with 90. The most is by Auburndale (112).

Players to watch:

Laconia: The whole team. It doesn’t look like (statistically) anyone stands out over the others, but it does look like they play a lot of girls. According to the stats I’ve received they have ten girls who have played every set this year. That’s pretty impressive. They have two setters and three girls with over 600 attacks. (Kortney Morrin is the only Pirate to have over 600 attacks) So it looks like they spread it around and you can’t key on one person.

Cuba City: They have a pair of good hitters in seniors Katie Langmeier and Emily Kaiser. Both average over 2.3 kills per game.

Auburndale: Kayleigh Kundinger is their junior setter and has more assists than Cuba City has as a team! I’m anticipating watching some pretty good offense from her as it looks like she’s not afraid to go over in two either. She has 57 kills on the season.

The Pirate softball team is once again the Division 3 state champions. They won back in 2006 in the longest game in Division 3 state history (12 innings). They were able to get this one in regulation.

The Pirates dispatched the Laconia Spartans today, 3-0 after avenging a 2004 loss to the Weyawega-Fremont Indians yesterday 7-2 in the semi-final game.

There is so much to write about with this run to the championship, I don’t know where to begin.

There were a lot of defensive highlights this weekend. Heather Davison had a game changing catch in the semi-finals… Tiff Meyer layed out for one today, snagged it and threw a bullet to first base to get the runner by a hair… Ingrid Ames had a couple amazing, tough catches… Annie Palmquist, too. The defense of Grantsburg was great when it needed to be.

The hitting all weekend was timely. Heather Davison was outstanding, as was Michelle Lund, Emily Cole and Tiff Meyer. The baserunning was outstanding and aggressive again and it paid off.

The pitching, though, was the absolute best. Michelle Lund was in a "Michael Jordan, NBA Finals" type of a zone. Nothing could rattle her and she was pitching bb’s up there. She had 14 strikeouts in the semi-finals and five today. If it weren’t for the errors today (5) it could’ve been the best game in the state tournament (although the division four game saw a perfect game pitched by a freshman!).

It was a very fun experience to announce these games. I’ve been privileged to go to state to cover athletics five times now and this is the first time one of the teams has won the tournament.

Congratulations, Pirates! You are a great team and a fun bunch of people!

By the way… with only one player lost to graduation (Ingrid Ames) it’s time to start thinking repeat!