2-25 Regional Preview

Here's a preview of all the upcoming girls regional games, the D1 games on Saturday and the rest of the games on Thursday.

Division 1

Logan (v. Madison LaFollette)

Logan is coming off a 10 point victory against Sun Prarie and are a tough team to beat at home. Michelle Mueller played, but seemed a little limited in that game, but I’m expecting that her role will increase as the play-offs ware on. Many of these players saw time during their state run two years ago including Mueller and Vanessa Blackwell, both 5’11’’ juniors who are among the areas elite. As long as they can stay focused, the Rangers should win the regional championship.

Holmen (at Middleton)

Holmen has had a relatively successful season to this point. The biggest downfall is they will go into Saturday’s game against Middleton without lead scorer Kylie Siolka who went down late in the regular season against Central. Middleton is heavily favored in this but I wouldn’t expect the MVC’s second place team to roll over. The win against Central without Siolka proves this team has some kick.

Division 2

West Salem at Sparta

As Greg reminded us yesterday, the regular season meeting between these two teams was decided by only two points. West Salem has a balanced attack that helped them run away with the Coulee this year and look for senior stand-out Mary Kurish to have a big game, as they look for some big time revenge in Sparta. The Spartans finished 5^th in the MVC this year but it was a tough conference and they were the team that handed Logan their only loss. Their fast pace play will be tough for West Salem to keep up with. Whoever dictates the pace late in the game could very well win this game.

G-E-T (at Durand)

Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau is a very polar team, on one hand, at the Coulee Classic at the La Crosse Center, they didn’t look very good against a struggling Luther team. On the other hand, they were the only Coulee Conference team to beat West Salem. Bottom-line is they can be a very good team and could come away with an upset.

Division 3

Viroqua at Aquinas

Aquinas’ 14-7 record in the regular season earned them a number 1 seed for good reason. They absolutely handled Westby in the opening round of the play-offs and they have a number of talented players in Emily Dolan and Haylea Halverson are dangerous from the outside and Kassie McGettigan is a threat underneath. Viroqua finished 4^th in the Coulee Conference and took care of business against Luther on Tuesday night. This could turn into a good game, but I think the Blugolds will come away with this win.

Arcadia at Whitehall

Arcadia took second place in a battered Coulee and Whitehall comes from a very good Dairyland conference which included Eleva-Strum who lost no players to graduation from their team that made it to state last year and Independence and Alma Center Lincoln, both earned a number 1 seed in Division 4. I think Whitehall is an overall better team but Arcadia has a lot of depth and a lot of talent.

Division 4

Gilmanton at Independence

If you’ll be in the northern part of the area tomorrow, I would suggest going to this game. It may be a 4 vs. 1, but with these towns only being about 18 miles apart this gymnasium should be rocking and as with any rivalry game or in conference game, this could read upset. That said, if any of our area girls teams will make it to state this year, my pick would be Independence. They are a very strong team with a number of players who have seen extended playing time for 2-3 seasons. Last year they missed state by 1 game against conference foe Eleva-Strum.

Royall (at Assumption)

Royall took 3^rd place in conference this year, but they have the ability to rise against big opponents as they beat both the 1^st and 2^nd place teams in the Scenic Bluffs conference. Assumption is a very good team who has not lost a game, they will be a very difficult team to beat.

Hillsboro (at Barneveld)

Hillsboro finished .500 in conference but had a much more impressive 12-8 overall record. Barneveld was 11-1 in conference and have been a very strong team in the past.

Ithaca at Weston

Weston should handle this game no problem. They are 14-0 and Weston won by 25 in their meeting earlier this year. Weston is a very good team and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them make a run at state.

Blair-Taylor at Lincoln

Another conference battle of Dairyland teams both coming from a great conference. Lincoln beat Blair-Taylor in both of the meetings this season, but only by a combined total of 6 points. I think Blair-Taylor could pull an upset here. This would be another great game to watch, I would expect it to come down to the 4^th quarter.