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

In warm and sunny conditions, the Whitewater Whippets competed with everything they had and came away with the best team finishes in recent memory at the massive Janesville Midwest Cross Country Invitational on Saturday, September 23. This event boasts over 50 teams from Wisconsin and surrounding states and showcases numerous teams and athletes that will be competing at their respective state meets in about five weeks.

The boys’ varsity team kicked things off first with a bang as the team secured a solid 25th-place finish overall led by Jack Hefty. Jack crossed the line in 16th out of 325 finishers with a new lifetime best of 16:11 for 5000 meters. His place afforded him a medal at this prestigious event. Also running particularly well on this day for varsity was Nate Holden who placed 49th with a new lifetime best of 16:52. Xavier Zei also ran a new lifetime best with a time of 17:51, strong enough for 141st overall. 

The JV athletes all competed in the “white race” and were led by Isaiah Mendez who had a massive time drop and ran his new lifetime best of 21:36. Isaiah placed 43rd in this strong field. Also having a particularly strong day was Alex Clarksen who was not far off his lifetime best he set earlier this season and ran 25:35. Angel Kilar was even closer to his lifetime best by a mere 3 seconds and placed 365th. Collectively as a JV squad, the team placed 15th out of 33 complete teams.

The girls’ varsity was led by Mady Hefty who led the team to a 29th-place finish overall. She placed 83rd with a time of 20:44. Athena Soto placed 117th in 21:33. Carley Boudreau was just a few seconds off her lifetime best and ran 22:15, placing 164th. Ema Aranda debuted on varsity for the first time and was the team’s 5th runner with a new lifetime best of 24:27, strong enough for 231st place. 

The JV athletes were led by Lucy Troxel who ran a new lifetime best of 25:55 and did so in tremendous fashion by placing 24th, which earned her a medal. Not far behind was Sami Van Daele who also just squeaked inside the medals by placing 29th in 26:11. The JV team placed 20th overall.

Next up for the team will be a race in Platteville on Saturday, September 30th. The first race is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m.

RESULTS

Article Submitted by Chad Carstens
Whitewater High School Head Cross Country Coach
ccarstens@wwusd.org
Photo Courtesy of Jeff Hefty