Sports

Don’t count members of the Middleton boys volleyball team among those surprised by the way things went in the third set of Saturday night’s WIAA sectional championship match against Madison Memorial.

Frustrated maybe, but not surprised.

The top-seeded Cardinals knew a sweep of the second-seeded Spartans wouldn’t be easy — even after winning the first two sets rather handily.

“Their season’s on the line,” Cardinals senior middle hitter Joe Ilk said. “They’re going to fight with everything they have.”

The Spartans did just that. But all their third-set victory ended up doing was delay the Cardinals’ party as Middleton bounced back in a big way, winning 25-14, 25-14, 20-25, 25-13 to advance to the state tournament for the 13th time overall after being upset in this round a year ago as the top seed.

OCONOMOWOC — Middleton’s boys soccer team spent their season surprising people.

It started with a Big Eight Conference championship. It included an unbeaten record against teams from Wisconsin. And it contained a No. 1 seed in the postseason.

The Cardinals’ season of surprises came to a painful end, though, last Saturday.

Third-seeded Verona scored a pair of second half goals and toppled Middleton, 2-0, in a WIAA Division 1 sectional final held at Oconomowoc High School

The Cardinals lost to a team from the state for the first time this season and ended the year 16-3-4. Verona improved to 18-3-0 and reached the state tournament for the third time in four seasons.

They had waited 362 days for this moment.

That’s 8,688 hours and 521,280 minutes.

And the anticipation was downright brutal.

“We couldn’t wait,” senior outside hitter Jordan LaScala said.

Almost one year to the date that Middleton’s girls volleyball team lost to Holmen in a WIAA Division 1 sectional final, the Cardinals got their revenge.

Middleton overcame some early jitters, found its footing and rolled to a 26-24, 25-21, 25-22 win over the Vikings in a sectional semifinal held at Madison Memorial. One year earlier, Holmen toppled the Cardinals in five sets with a trip to state on the line.

“Revenge? Oh yeah,” LaScala said. “I think that kind of motivated us, like this is the team that we’re familiar with and the team that ended our season last year. So yeah, there was that bit of competitiveness there.”

Middleton senior middle blocker Sierra Pertzborn agreed.

MILWAUKEE — Jack Madigan didn't mince words.

“A lot of us were pretty angry about traveling,” Middleton’s standout linebacker said.

Gabe Passini didn’t try sugarcoating it.

“We weren’t happy about going on the road,” Middleton’s quarterback said. “So we used it as energy.”

Boy, did they ever.

Middleton’s football team felt disrespected, insulted and offended after being handed a No. 5 seed in the WIAA Division 1 playoffs. So the Cardinals proved they deserved better by routing fourth-seeded Milwaukee Marshall, 55-0, in a Level 1 playoff game held at Milwaukee Custer Stadium Friday.

Middleton won its sixth straight game, improved to 7-3 and will travel to top-seeded Waunakee for a Level 2 playoff game Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. Marshall finished its year 6-4.

MADISON — They’re getting closer.

After a semifinal trip last year, Middleton’s girls tennis team advanced to the finals of the WIAA Division 1 state team tournament where they dropped a 5-2 decision to Hartland Arrowhead last Saturday.

“Our girls fought from Friday night on,” Middleton coach Matt Given said. “They took care of what they had to take care of and ran into a really tough opponent and it was a close match. I’m real proud of every single one of them for sure.”

The No. 2-seeded Cardinals rolled past No. 7-seeded Hudson, 6-1, in the quarterfinals on Friday and toppled No. 3 seeded DSHA, 5-2, in the semifinals earlier Saturday, but couldn’t overcome top-seeded Arrowhead in the final.

“Last year we lost in the semis, so we didn’t even make it this far,” Middleton senior Sonya Agapov said. “It was fun, good teams, good results. Nothing to be upset about.”

All streaks are meant to be broken,

But Middleton’s boys cross country team wasn’t going to let any adage stand in its way.

On a warm and breezy fall morning, Middleton shined once again and qualified for the WIAA Division 1 state meet for a remarkable 10^th straight year.

The Cardinals finished in second place at the DeForest Sectional on Oct. 22 and earned the final team spot at this Saturday’s state meet. Madison West won the sectional with 48 points, while Middleton (66) edged Verona for the second berth (68).

“That’s a pretty wild accomplishment,” said Middleton coach Brian Finnel, who has led the Cardinals to state in all 10 of his seasons as MHS’ coach. “A lot of credit has to go to these guys and to prior runners who are working hard and trusting the process. It’s pretty special to have the team qualify 10 years in a row.

Time was running out on her senior season, but Elizabeth ‘Bean’ Schwartz wasn’t ready to concede the end of her prep cross country career any earlier than she had to.

Schwartz competed in a race for just the third time this fall — and first since Sept. 23 — and finished 15^th overall at last Saturday’s WIAA Division 1 DeForest Sectional.

But that surprise addition to the Cardinals’ lineup gave the two-time defending state champions the impetus they needed to make a return trip to the WIAA state meet this weekend.

Ninth-ranked and Badger East Conference champion Waunakee placed all five of its scoring runners in the top 17 to finish with 47 points and prevent the Cardinals from defending their sectional team title. But 14th-ranked Middleton placed four runners in the top 19 — including two in the top four — to finish second with 67 points and secure the second and final team state meet berth. 

They are halfway home.

They know, though, that the second stage of this journey will be far more demanding than the first.

Middleton’s boys soccer team captured a WIAA Division 1 regional championship last week after rolling past both Janesville Parker and Badger. The top-seeded Cardinals downed 16^th-seeded Parker, 12-0, in a regional semifinal on Oct. 18, then toppled eighth-seeded Badger, 2-0, in the regional finals last Saturday.

Now, the road gets much tougher.

Middleton hosts fourth-seeded Madison West in a sectional semifinal Thursday at 7 p.m. Third-seeded Verona and seventh-seeded Beloit Memorial meet in the other sectional semifinal.

The two winners then meet for the sectional championship Saturday at 1 p.m. at Oconomowoc High School.

“Any time we play West we know it's going to be a battle and I don't expect anything less than that,” Middleton coach Kevin Pauls said.

Two down.

Two to go.

Middleton’s girls volleyball team is just two steps from reaching the state tournament after winning a WIAA Division 1 regional championship last weekend.

The second-seeded Cardinals received a first round bye, then cruised past seventh-seeded Monona Grove, 25-15, 25-16, 25-9, last Saturday in a regional title match.
Middleton now faces third-seeded Holmen in a sectional semifinal Thursday at 7 p.m. at Madison Memorial. Top-seeded Waunakee and fourth-seeded Verona square off in the other sectional semifinal.

The winners advance to the sectional finals Saturday at 7 p.m. at Monona Grove High School.

“I was really happy with how we performed on Saturday,” Middleton coach Maddie Vogel said. “Monona Grove is a scrappy team with a lot of young talent, so we went in knowing we would have to terminate early.”

The Cardinals did just that.

Netra Somasundaram led the way.

And Middleton’s girls tennis team enjoyed a terrific showing at the WIAA Division 1 individual state meet last weekend.

Somasundaram, Middleton’s No. 1 singles player, reached the quarterfinals before falling. The Cardinals also had two other singles players and two doubles teams give solid performances at the tournament.

“I am really proud of all the girls who qualified for the individual state tournament,” Middleton coach Matt Given said. “It was a huge achievement to have the most girls in the state playing this past weekend. Each girl left everything they had out there and I could not be more proud of them for that.”

Here’s how the Cardinals performed at state: