Thursday night, September 28, saw Whitewater play host to Jefferson in Boys’ Soccer on what turned into a thrilling senior/parent night for all involved.

The first half was closely contested with Whitewater’s Sebastian Cuellar scoring a deserved penalty. Jefferson equalized 5 minutes later, and we went to half time all square at 1-1.

A special halftime ceremony honoring our seniors and their parents developed into a successful 2nd half of play for the Whippets. All aspects of the second half were dominated by Whitewater, and Sebastian Cuellar added two more goals to complete his hat trick.

It was a bittersweet evening for our seniors as they saw their final home game of the regular season come and go. The Whippets travel to Lodi on Saturday for a tournament to take on Middleton’s Varsity Reserve, Madison Country Day, and Lodi. 

Whitewater:

• 24’ Sebastian Cuellar goal
• 59’ Sebastian Cuellar goal assisted by Ethan Dugan
• 78’ Sebastian Cuellar goal assisted by Johan Perez

• Phoenix Jones with 4 saves
• Casey Schlicher with 4 saves

Monroe:

• 29’ Jacob Kerkenbush goal

• Sam Steies with 9 saves

Article Submitted by Sam Burns
Whitewater High School Head Boys’ Soccer Coach
dburns@wwusd.org

The Whitewater Girls’ Swim Team competed at home against Jefferson/Cambridge on Tuesday, September 26. Our athletes showed up to compete as many obtained personal best times for the season.

Adalynn Frye took on the 200 Freestyle for the first time this season. She also went a best time in the 100 Breaststroke by 16 seconds. 

Zoe Zei has found a love for the 500 Freestyle and is absolutely crushing it. She dropped 21 seconds from just last week! 

Lucy Davis swam the 200 Freestyle for the first time this season and dropped 24 seconds from last year. She also went a best time in the 100 Butterfly by dropping 8 seconds. 

Marijose Verduzco swam the 50 Butterfly in a Medley relay which we hope is the first of many Butterfly races. She also went a best time in the 100 Freestyle by 5 seconds. 

Atreya Wilson went 3 of 4 in best times for the night which included a 3 second drop in the 100 Breaststroke. 

The 400 Freestyle Relay consisting of Makayla Bazeley, Charlotte Hajewski, Maggie Maas, and Emerson Dunham won their heat with a time of 4:27.43. 

The Swim Team is back in the pool on Tuesday, October 3, at Elkhorn. We hope to see you all there!

Article and Photo Submitted by Sarah Reynolds
Whitewater High School Head Girls’ Swim Coach
sreynolds@wwusd.org

The Whitewater Volleyball Team beat visiting Monroe in 4 sets on Dig Pink Night (19-25, 25-18, 25-13, 25-18), Thursday, September 28. The night started with some heartfelt tributes to two special moms who beat breast cancer, Nicole Grosinske and Nikki Amundson. Both Calli and Aidyn gave moving speeches about their moms and their fight against cancer. Our continued love and support of them, and anyone impacted by cancer, is endless.

Coach Mary Kilar commented, “We finally put together a match and played like the team we know we are! When we visited Monroe, we lost in a 5-set battle. So, to turn around and host them and beat them solidly in four sets shows our improvement. As a coaching staff we have been preaching playing to win, and tonight we took control and did just that! We also have been working hard to improve our ace to error ratio on serve, and we accomplished this with 16 aces and 8 errors.”

Tonight, Calli Grosinske saw the court and bettered the ball each chance she got. She led us again with another double-double and ended the night with 24 kills, hitting a .283, scoring 3 aces and 13 digs. I was so pleased to see her respond with leadership; she had a solid night tonight!

Ella Spear also had a great night passing a 2.0, and was a force behind the serving line and defensively. She racked up 6 aces, 13 digs, and 7 assists. Falyn Krahn contributed 3 kills, 8 digs, and a block. Zoe Kohl added 14 digs and an ace. Manny Mbifi added 3 kills and a block, Meg Roselle finished the night with 2 kills and 5 digs, and Savannah O’Neil came in with 2 aces!

Finally, our senior setter Marina Linos, had a stellar night behind the line with 4 aces, and a double-double of 15 assists and 12 digs, also adding 2 kills.

To see our team regroup after a loss of 5 sets at Delavan and take over this match was exactly what we knew this team is capable of. I am happy for them and proud of their work tonight!

Thank you to all who came out and supported our Dig Pink. Next up is Play for Trey on Tuesday, October 3rd. Wear your Play for Trey gear, blue and gold, and come out to support us against Jefferson. JV1 and JV2 at 5:00 PM and varsity to follow at 6:30.

Article and Photos Submitted by Mary Kilar
Whitewater High School Head Volleyball Coach
mkilar@wwusd.org

A couple calls didn’t go our way that should have, and the Whippets lost a tightly contested volleyball match in 5 sets (23-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-23, 16-18) to Delavan on Tuesday, September 26.

Coach Mary Kilar commented, “This match was ours. I felt we played more consistently, managed our game plan and played well as a team. Unfortunately, a couple critical calls and we found ourselves losing in the final set 16-18. I was truly disappointed for the athletes, as I felt they deserved this match because of the way they battled and played offensively and defensively. We truly need to overcome the mental doubt that creeps in when matches get close and are on the line. We need to have ‘finish’ mentality, because these matches are ours!”

Manny Mbifi had an outstanding match for us. It was so awesome to see Manny fired up about her blocking and play. Manny ended the night with 6 kills and 5 blocks. She was a leader tonight, and the coaching staff has wanted all season to see her confidence blossom, and tonight it did.

Falyn Krahn also had an outstanding night both offensively and defensively. Falyn listens to every bit of coaching and immediately puts it into practice. She is so fun to coach because she works hard, leaves it all on the court, and although undersized for an outside hitter, she always follows the scouting plan and scores for us. She works just as hard on defense as she does on offense and she ended the night with 9 kills, 3 aces, 21 digs, and 3 block assists.

Ava Alvarado passed a 2.5 on the night and was so consistent in defense. She is so solid and consistent! She never quit on a ball, and had some amazing saves.

Ella Spear is a consistent leader for us. She is passing solidly, and owning the libero position. She works so hard, and wants her team to do well. She had 5 aces and led us in digs on the night with 25. Our defense is strong, and tonight was no different. Zoe Kohl finished the night with 16 digs and 3 aces. Sydney Schilt added 6 kills (hitting a .200), 4 digs, and 2 blocks.

Meg Roselle came through with her serve and defense. She added 4 kills, 1 ace, 4 assists, 6 digs, and 3 blocks.

Marina Linos continues to work hard in the setting position dishing out 19 assists, 1 ace, 6 digs, and 1 block.

Calli Grosinske continued to battle and added yet another double-double with 17 kills and 21 digs.

The Whippets overall hit a .056, had 13 aces and 19 errors, 107 digs, and 8 blocks. I have said all season that we are a defensively strong team. You can see in our dig stat that this is true. We have been focusing on serve, serve receive, and blocking at practices, and it is so nice to see our block stat improve. I am hopeful with continued service training we can improve our ace to error ratio as that will finish matches for us.

To see this fight is so great. We have so much to be proud of tonight. We battled and battled hard. I am so proud of the athletes tonight!

Article Submitted by Mary Kilar
Whitewater High School Head Volleyball Coach
mkilar@wwusd.org