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The winter seasons are complete.

Tonight the Grantsburg girls met their demise in St. Croix Falls (as their male counterparts did just one week prior).

The Pirate ladies fell 46-26 to the Saints, thus ending their season.

The girls improved upon their previous season's win total and got better this year. Hopefully the trend continues as the Pirates have a young team and would like to finish in the top half of their conference next season.

I caught up with Grantsburg's head coach Penny Curtin after the game.

The West Lakeland represented nicely for the opening round of the boys' tournament. Five of seven won their opening round playoff game (there was never a chance for a perfect 7-0 as Grantsburg and St. Croix Falls locked up for their first round tilt… SCF won 54-45).

Only Unity lost (by two to Colfax, the number 2 seed).

Pesky Frederic won by a point to beat the number 4 seed Bruce.

Here are the results:

Division 3

Division 4

In an extremely physical game, the Grantsburg Pirates were bruised, battered and finally, beaten by the St. Croix Falls Saints 54-45, ending the Pirates' season. They finished 12-11.

The punishing game went both ways, and in fact, Grantsburg was the aggressor for most of the way. The Saints finally caught up to Grantsburg's physicality and ended up pulling away down the stretch.

Grantsburg had a lot of trouble scoring in the middle quarters and ultimately that's what did them in. It was a close game through the night and Grantsburg pulled within four with about four minutes remaining. Then SCF scored six unanswered and Grantsburg was not able to make a clutch shot the rest of the night. The closest they got from then on was six points.

The Pirates end their season on a sour note (all but four teams in the state do), but the future is bright and the sky is the limit with this crew. The Pirates return EVERYBODY for the 2010-2011 campaign. IF they all work on their individual games (as in… how can I improve to benefit the team) and IF they gel more as a team, there might be nobody to stop them next year in the conference (I'm sure Siren and Webster might not agree with that).

It was an entertaining year to watch these guys mature to varsity players and I think new Head Coach Nick Hallberg is just the right guy to lead them back to a deep run in the playoffs next year.

The girls brackets are out (Division 3, Division 4) and there are some noteworthy matchups.

In division 3, Grantsburg will be traveling to St. Croix Falls, a West Lakeland rival, to start their postseason. It's also who they play to end their regular season. So March 5th will be a playoff preview game against SCF for the Pirates. Another note… the boys playoffs also see Grantsburg and SCF with the opening game of the playoffs.

In division 4 The Siren Dragons receive a number two seed (behind Northwood). Siren lost their first conference game this past week against Luck. Both teams are now 10-1 in the conference and will most likely finish tied for first (Luck still plays Frederic and Siren has one left against Webster). Both Siren and Luck received number two seeds in division 4.

I think Siren is still a very dangerous team, although they've been shaky down the stretch here losing to Luck and getting shut down in the second half against Grantsburg. Hopefully coach Ryan Karsten can right the ship and provide another deep run in the playoffs.

It's that time of year… playoffs are on the horizon and I have my assignments for radio coverage for 105.7 WXCX.

Next Tuesday I'll be heading to St. Croix Falls to broadcast the SCF/Grantsburg first round tilt. It's a four versus five seed to start our coverage and I think it should be a great game.

Grantsburg has been playing very well as of late and they split the season series with the Saints.

Hopefully there will be a game on Thursday night but it just depends on the Tuesday night game results.

Game time is 7:00 (not 7:30 like the regular season).

I will also be covering Siren @ Webster girls game next Friday evening (3/5).

The Grantsburg boys will not get a home game to start the tournament. They will instead be heading to St. Croix Falls whom they've faced twice this season and have split those two games. It should be a great matchup. Webster will host an opening game as they secured a #3 seed. Division 3 BRACKET

The Siren Dragons got a #4 seed in D4 and will host an opening round game. They'll take on Northwood. Division 4 BRACKET

It's a great time of the year!

I'm not sure how our broadcasting schedule will work out, but as soon as I find out I will let you know!

My most recent Inside the Huddle column features me trying to predict the end of the season in the crazy boys conference known as the West Lakeland.

Three teams still have a chance at winning the thing (Luck, SCF and Siren). Read the story to see where I think each team will finish in the conference.

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 Pirates have won their conference 21 times in a row. That’s a crazy phenomenal stat. They finished this season undefeated in conference play and honestly, they were never challenged. Not even against division 4 state qualifiers, Clayton.

The Pirates are ranked number one again according to the Wissport.net poll. They remain number one in the WVCA poll as well.

The Pirates look like they’re ready for the post-season which starts next Tuesday and you can listen to every match on 105.7 WXCX. (If you’d like to advertise please call the station at 888.629.7575 – no, I don’t get a commission)

Here are the nearly final standings for the West Lakeland conference. Grantsburg still has the Cameron Tournament this weekend so the overall records will change, but the conference season is over.

The Grantsburg football team will don their purple jerseys for the last time tonight as they take on the Comets from Cameron at Robert Olson field. The game can be heard on 105.7 WXCX. Tune in around 6:20 for Red Rock Radio Replay then listen to the game at 7:00.

It looks like Grantsburg has a pretty good chance of getting their second conference win of the season and their third win overall because Cameron has only one win this season and it was a non-conference game against the Northwood/Solon Springs Evergreens (3-3, 3-4) 35-0.

Both teams have had trouble stopping their opponent’s from scoring this year. Grantsburg has given up 202 points this year (last year they gave up 298), Cameron has allowed 201 points.

Grantsburg has scored 114 points, while Cameron has only mustered 75 (35 against one team).