Cheers and Jeers

First Full Week of Fall Sports for NS Prep Teams is Full of Hope

Posted by steven tietz on Sept. 1, 2009 | 0 comments

The fall season for North Shore area prep teams began with October-like temperatures but a summer-like sense of optimism and hope as most sports went into full swing.

Here are some selected highlights that we weren't able to fit into this week's edition of the North Shore NOW. Look for similar updates every week on this site.

---Nicolet girls cross country coach Mike McKenna has long lamented the lack of competitiveness that his last place North Shore Conference Knights have shown in recent years.

Signs of life, created by freshman Lauren Cunningham's fifth place finish in the frosh/soph race at the Menomonee Falls Rotary Park Challenge on Aug. 27, have reinvigorated McKenna as four other Knights, Christie Cunningham (12th), Allison Maling (19th), Grace Dykstra (24th) and Kristen Maling (27th) were all in the top 30 in the 122-runner race.

"There's a real competitive atmosphere out there," he said. "One that we (the coaches) don't have to manufacture."

---The 2008 NSC runner-up Nicolet boys team looks like it might be able to shake off some high-level graduation losses as the Knights put four runners between 17:47 and 18:59 in the junior/senior race at Falls and got a major surprise when sophomore Josh Greenberg took second in the frosh/soph race in a team best of 17:15.

---The Whitefish Bay/Shorewood girls golf team took early control of the North Shore Conference race when it won the league mini-meet at Brown Deer on Monday as Keeley Wallis shot a nine-hole total of 41 for meet medalist honors.

Last week, the Blue Dukes, who have already won Mukwonago Invitational this season, lost out on a tiebreaker for the championship in the 20-plus school Waukesha County Scramble at Ironwood. Bay/Shorewood had a collective score of 60, the same as eventual winner Brookfield Central, Brookfield East and Arrowhead. A note of concern, Nicolet, home of recently graduated two-time state individual champ Tory Bauman, has been fielding an incomplete team so far this season. Let's hope the Knights can elicit a little more interest as school gets into full swing this week.

---Enthusiasm remains high with the Brown Deer/University School co-op girls swim team even though numbers are down (25 total) this fall.

Coaches Bob Van Lieshout and John Douglass will rely on three strong seniors Caroline Roos, Kim Surfus and Nicole Hornslein to lead the way, while getting help from juniors Dani Goss, Kim Zwicke, and Caroline Bridges as well as from sophomores Kevlyn Holmes and Kristin Gosse.

Van Lieshout said the team's first-ever WildFalconCat Invitational on Aug. 28 was a huge success as the Falcons were fourth of six with North Shore power Whitefish Bay winning (see North Shore NOW for Bay details).

Roos was second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 100 butterfly while Bridges was third in the 50 free and fourth in the 100 free. The Falcons two freestyle relays were both second as Bridges, Roos, Goss and Hornslein were clocked in 1:47.6 in the 200 free and the crew of Bridges, Roos, Goss and Surfus charted a 3:58.5 in the 400. Both relays were well ahead of times set at this point last year.

The Falcons will drop down into state division 2 competition again this season after a successful one-year trip into Division I. Van Lieshout feels this will be a good season, but can't wait for this year's talented eighth graders to arrive as freshmen next fall.

---Meanwhile, down the road in Glendale, Nicolet swim coach Dwight Davis is facing a new reality in terms of numbers. They are still solid enough at 44 athletes, but are off the usual 50 to 60.

That's because the school is getting a little smaller and the area swim clubs are not as well-organized in the Glendale/Bayside/Fox Point area as they used to be, he said. He's going to work other channels to try and keep the talent pool flowing.

National youth diving champion Calli Head will join senior Leah Fischer to give the Knights strength off the one-meter board while senior twins Nicole and Yvonne Hangsterfer and junior Taylor Winter will provide high-caliber talent in the pool.

---On the volleyball front, everyone knows about the talent that returning North Shore Conference champion Nicolet has (see North Shore NOW for details), but the Knights will not have a walk in the park to another league title.

Germantown won the league tourney last season and has nine returnees. The Warhawks won the Cedarburg Invitational last week to get their season underway, and Homestead, under second-year coach Sarah Wasmer, will make some serious noises of its own right.

The Highlanders, who lost a thrilling WIAA sectional semifinal to state qualifier Watertown last season, will build around four seniors including powerhouse outside hitter Erica Reetz, whom Nicolet coach Dann Jacobson calls "A major talent, one of the top players in the state".

Other seniors for Homestead include libero Andrea Voss, middle hitter Lauren Kellaher and setter Natalie Sperling. Sophomore Claire Raddatz is a sophomore outside hitter.

"We are motivated to try and win conference after taking second last year," Wasmer said.

The Highlanders were an impressive seventh in the powerhouse Milwaukee Lutheran Joust last weekend. Among their match victories were wins over 11-time state champ Waupun and seven-time Greater Metro Conference champ Menomonee Falls.

---A dark horse in that volleyball race will be Whitefish Bay, which finished third in its season-opening West Allis Central Invite on Aug. 29.

Four seniors and a junior will lead the Dukes. Heading up the list is outside hitter/setter Maggie Rice ("Love the way she plays the game," said Jacobson. "...she brings some serious power"), along with libero Meredith Ludwig, defensive specialist Hillary Stein and middle blocker Jessie Taylor. Junior outside hitter/seter Frankie Carroll is also a major threat.

The Blue Dukes are coached by Beth Haberli, who switched over from Bay's boys team last season after an earlier stint with the girls.

"We're going to play about nine people consistently," she said, "so we'll have some depth. ..The conference is tougher than it used to be but the girls have been responding well."

---It had to be a sense of "deja-vu all over again" for the Homestead boys soccer team on Aug. 29, as the Highlanders dropped a 1-0 decision to defending state champion Marquette in the semifinals of the Gusho Tournament.

The game bore an eerie resemblance to the Highlanders state semifinal loss last fall to the Hilltoppers by the very same score. Chris Browne kept Homestead in the game with four saves as Marquette outshot Homestead by an 18-2 count.

Homestead then ran out of gas in the consolation contest, falling to host East 5-0.

---Patience was a virtue for the Whitefish Bay football team last Friday night, but it didn't pay off in victory, as the Blue Dukes lost a storm-delayed opener to Waukesha West, 14-7.

"We didn't get home until after midnight," said Blue Duke Coach Jim Tietjen, "because we had an hour and 15 minute delay at one point. The kids tried to stay loose in the cafeteria and we had some opportunities to win it, but we just had some dropped passes at inopportune times."

Charles Congdon provided the gamewinner for the Wolverines on an eight-yard run in the fourth quarter. Brian Kroll had tied the score for Bay on a seven-yard run in the second quarter. He also had an interception. Tietjen thought that junior quarterback Cal Ehrke looked good in his first offical start, doing so well that he earned a co-captain's slot.

Tietjen also praised senior linebacker Tim Haberli, who filled in for Blue Duke mainstay Victor Gottlieb, who was out with a knee injury. Tietjen noted that Gottlieb thinks he can return to action reasonably soon.

Tietjen said that all of the mistakes that were made are correctable. Bay will host Slinger at 7 p.m. Friday.

---Patience mixed with optimism was the tone of the evening when the Nicolet football team opened its season with a 40-0 loss to defending Woodland champ Pewaukee. It was the third straight loss in as many seasons for the Knights to the Pirates.

New Nicolet coach Everett Jenkins tried to accentuate the positive.

"The key is for us to keep our guys up and get out of this hole," Jenkins said. "Our kids played hard and that’s the main thing right now. We’re disappointed, but we can practice again next week. Pewaukee has a great team. No doubt about that."

---Brown Deer's boys soccer team (2-3 overall) has played some very competitive ball early this season.

The Falcons dropped their Woodland Conference 1-0 to Whitnall Monday night, in what Coach Joe Shokatz called "a very physical game." Shokatz said that the Falcons had many chances but could not convert as Joey Mattefs made 11 saves in goal and junior Rob Davis was praised for his defensive work.

Brown Deer also fell to state division 2 power Grafton 3-0, last week, as in a critical sequence, the game turned when the Falcons hit the post with one shot and then shortly thereafter the Blackhawks did the very same thing, only they were able to collect the rebound and score.

The high point for the week was a 4-0 win over Greendale Marttin Luther on Aug. 26, when David Radtke had two goals and Kaj Edstrom and Rafath Fanou-Agossou one each.

Brown Deer will host its own Cup Tournament this weekend, playing Carmen High School and then taking on the winner of Milwaukee Lutheran and Elkhorn.

Nicolet stopped the Pirates on the game’s opening series on a three-and-out series. But after that, the Pirates scored on their next four possessions and eventually took a 34-0 lead into the intermission.

The game was stopped with 4:56 to play when lightning hit the area. Both coaches agreed at that point to just end the game, rather than wait the WIAA-mandated 30 minutes to resume the game after lightning causes a delay.

Big plays hurt the Knights. Pewaukee scored touchdowns on a 74-yard pass, a 37-yard interception return and a 77-yard run from scrimmage.

Nicolet quarterback Brandon Kappel completed 12 of 27 passes, good for 78 yards. He had two passes intercepted. Lamar Johnson-Harris, who averaged 20 yards on three punt returns and 15 yards on four kickoff returns, caught three passes for 19 yards. Cinmeon Bowers, Shane Wilson, Reggie Dillingham and Nick Corley all had two receptions each.

On defense, Jevelle Rollins led the way with four tackles. Mark Tableson, Jeremy Lusk and Rollins had sacks. The Knights will have their home opener on Friday at 7 p.m. against Kenosha St. Joseph's.