The WIAA state playoffs across many sports are hitting the home stretch and teams in Waukesha are right in the thick of it.
From boys soccer, to boys and girls volleyball, to cross country, to football, the city has many teams trying to keep the dream of a state title alive.
The Catholic Memorial boys soccer team is one of them. The Crusaders, at state for the sixth straight year, faces Fox Valley Lutheran at 3 p.m. Friday in a Division 2 semifinal game at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee. These teams know each other quite well and both are no stranger to this environment, as it’s a rematch of the last two state championship games. Lutheran won in 2009, while Memorial got revenge in 2010.
In volleyball, it was business as usual for the top-ranked Catholic Memorial girls volleyball team on Thursday night, as it breezed past St. Thomas More, 25-15, 25-9, 25-16 in a sectional semifinal match. Aly Dawson led the Crusaders with 12 kills, Tia Johnson paced Memorial with 15 assists, while Lindsey Casper had a match-high 14 digs.
Now, the only team standing in Memorial’s way of getting to state for the fourth straight year is none other than Kettle Moraine Lutheran. The match is at 7 p.m. Saturday at Milwaukee Lutheran.
This is the sixth straight year the two teams are facing each other with a state berth on the line. Memorial has won four of the five matchups and the last time the Crusaders didn’t make it to state was when KML defeated them in the 2007 sectional championship match on its way to a state title.
The sixth-seeded Waukesha West girls volleyball team, meanwhile, had its season come to a close Thursday when it was dispatched in a sectional semifinal match by second-seeded Germantown, 25-11, 25-17, 25-19.
While the girls are done, the West boys volleyball team will try to keep its stellar season going when the second-seeded Wolverines host seventh-seeded Madison East at 7 p.m. Friday in the opening round of the WIAA playoffs. The Catholic Memorial boys are ranked first in the same sectional and received a first-round bye.
Waukesha will be represented this weekend in the state cross country meet in Wisconsin Rapids as the entire Waukesha South boys and Waukesha West girls will be running after both squads finished second at its sectional meet last Saturday. The Division 1 girls race is at 12:20 p.m. Saturday, while the boys race is at 2:20 p.m.
Finally, the Waukesha West football team (10-0) continues its march to its second straight Division 1 championship when it travels to unseeded Sun Prairie at 1 p.m. Saturday. Prairie (8-2) is coming off a 22-21 upset win over third-seeded Lake Geneva Badger in its Level 1 game last week.
West, on the other hand, didn’t have to sweat too much in its 34-7 win over Janesville Parker in its Level 1 game.