Grafton earns shiny silver medals

It wasn’t the color they were looking for, but Grafton High School’s volleyball players walked out of the gym on Saturday with medals around their necks.

The Black Hawks took second in their home invite after losing in the finals, 25-16, 26-24, to Wauwatosa East.

The teams faced off during pool play of the tournament as well, and the first time ended the same way the sequel did. The Red Raiders won, 25-22, 26-24.

But there was plenty good to be taken from the tight matches against a talented squad.

“We came close both times we played them,” Grafton senior outside hitter Abby Proefrock said.

“We kind of need to push ourselves just a little bit further than we’re doing and execute more on everything overall. It’s not one specific thing for us.”

Proefrock led the team with seven kills and 10 digs in the finals. Leah Maciejewski had four kills.

Lauren Malchow served three aces, and Camille Mirek served two. Mirek had two blocks.

Katie Stockhausen had nine assists and Dani Thompson had five. Grace Viesselmann had four digs.

Malchow said getting over the hump to win tight matches is more mental than physical.

“I think it really showed us that as a team we can win. We just need a good mindset, and we need to push through at the end when we face more challenges,” she said.

In both of the second sets, the Hawks took a lead only to see it dwindle and deteriorate into a deficit.

In the second set in the finals, the Hawks held leads of 13-7, 15-11 and 22-19 before the Red Raiders came all the way back to tie the set at 23.

Grafton called a timeout, then won the next point to go up, 24-23. The Red Raiders called a timeout, then won the next two points to take a 25-24 lead.

Grafton called timeout again, but the Red Raiders won the next point and sealed the tournament.

“We’re experienced but we’re not. They just don’t have a lot of that experience in competition like this,” coach Chad Tuszkiewicz said.

“This is the kind of thing that’s going to get them that.”

He did learn some things about his team during the invite’s four matches.

“We’ve been moving and we’ve been progressing. We tried a couple of lineup changes that worked that will help us progress more through the rest of the season. That’s what I’m most proud of,” he said.

In pool play, the Hawks beat Beaver Dam, 25-16, 25-18.  Maciejewski had eight kills. Stockhausen had 11 assists and Thompson had nine. Proefrock and Stockhausen each had eight digs.

Against Wauwatosa East the first time, Maciejewski had nine kills and Proefrock had seven. Proefrock had 13 digs and Maciejewski had five.

In the semifinals against New Berlin Eisenhower, the Hawks won, 25-23, 25-19. Proefrock had 15 kills and Malchow had 10.

Stockhausen had 15 assists and Thompson had 12. Viesselmann had 14 digs and Malchow had seven.

Tuszkiewicz said Viesselmann stood out at libero all day.

“She had a great semifinal match, totally dominated the back row,” he said.

He praised Proefrock for her work on the outside and said Thompson, one of the setters in his 6-2 offense, “really did a great job in putting up a lot of playable balls for us to get the hits that we needed.”

The tournament experience, he said, will help in the North Shore Conference.

“I think this really gives us that confidence going back into conference play,” Tuszkiewicz said.

The Hawks are 0-3 in the NSC after Whitefish Bay beat them Sept. 14, 25-18, 25-19, 16-25, 25-14.

The Hawks were to play at West Bend East on Tuesday, in an invite at Badger High School on Saturday and host Nicolet on Tuesday, Sept. 28.

Port eclipses .500 at Wauwatosa West invite

Port Washington went 3-2 in a Wauwatosa West invite on Saturday.

Port beat South Milwaukee, 25-10, 25-15; Brookfield Academy, 25-16, 25-21; and Wauwatosa West, 25-20, 25-23. Port lost to St. Thomas More twice, 25-19, 25-15; and 23-25, 25-13, 15-7.

On the day, Jennacy Wille had 29 kills. Carolyn Lippe had 19 and Elyse Karrels had 18.

Amira Sczcepanski had 51 digs. Lippe had 33.

Sydney Hoeft had 54 assists and Julia Schmit had 43.

On Sept. 14, Nicolet beat Port, 23-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-21. Wille had 11 kills, Rebecca Sepanic had eight and Karrels had seven. Schmit had four aces. Karrels had five blocks. Szczepanski had 25 digs. Wille and Hoeft each had 11, and Lippe had 12.
Port, 0-3 in the NSC, was to play at Slinger Tuesday, host a tournament on Saturday and host Homestead on Tuesday, Sept. 28.