It’s Goliath vs. Goliath. It’s No. 1 vs. No. 2. It’s last year’s state champion vs. last year’s state runner-up.
Marquette (43-4) vs. Catholic Memorial (29-3) is a volleyball match made for the state championship.
Instead, the two powerhouses will battle in the state quarterfinals in a much anticipated rematch of last year’s title game. The match takes place at 5 p.m. today at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee.
The winner takes on either Germantown (14-5) or Wauwatosa East (27-10) in the state semifinals at noon Saturday. The championship match will be played at 5:30 p.m. later that day. But the winner of the Memorial/Marquette match will no doubt be the heavy favorite the rest of the tournament.
Memorial, champions of the Classic 8, and Marquette, champions of the Greater Metro, have a mere combined seven losses. The other quarterfinal matches all have a combined double digit losses (15, 18, 27).
The two teams also have a combined winning percentage of 91 percent, while the other quarterfinal matchups have a combined 75, 73 and the Westosha Central (25-13) and Racine Horlick (16-14) matchup features two teams with a combined winning percentage of 59 percent.
While the Crusaders are the defending champions and swept Marquette in three sets to win the title last year, the Hilltoppers have given Memorial all three of its losses this year. Memorial, ranked No. 2 this year, did upend the Hilltoppers, ranked No. 1, once this year.
Memorial is at state for the eighth time and is seeking its third title, with its first coming in 2000.
But it has come up just short four times, finishing runner-up in 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007.
Marquette, meanwhile, is at state for the 10th straight time and has won five titles (2002, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008).
Both Memorial and Marquette have not lost a set in each of its first two WIAA postseason matches this year.