Heights spikers receive No. 8 seed

Bring on the postseason. The Wisconsin Heights girls volleyball team received a No. 8 seed in their WIAA Division 4 sectional and hosted ninth-seeded Iowa-Grant in a regional quarterfinal on Tuesday. “They play in a competitive conference like we do and have an overall season record similar to ours,” Heights coach Katie Doescher said. “I think this is a good draw for us and it’s a match we can win.” If Heights was able to win Tuesday, it would travel to No. 1 seeded Mineral Point for a regional semifinal Thursday at 7 p.m. The regional finals are Saturday, while the sectional semifinals are Oct. 31 and the sectional finals are Nov. 2. Heights heads to the postseason with an 11-19 record following a week in which it lost a pair of Capitol Conference matches and went 3-1 at the Marshall Invite. New Glarus defeated the Vanguards, 25-14, 25-21, 14-25, 25-18, on Oct. 15. Izzy Sutherland led Heights with eight kills, while Haydan Louis had 15 assists and three aces. Maya Luko had 18 digs for the Vanguards, while Lorelai Sutherland added six aces. Cambridge then rolled by the Vanguards, 25-15, 25-19, 25-8. Sutherland had five kills, Sonja Severson had 11 digs and Louis had six assists and two aces. The Vanguards then had a solid day at the Marshall Invite last Saturday. Heights opened with a 25-17, 25-17 win over Fort Atkinson, then lost to Madison Memorial, 17-25, 25-15, 15-9. The Vanguards rebounded with a 25-17, 15-25, 15-9 win over Columbus, then downed Eastbrook, 25-11, 20-25, 15-4. Sutherland finished the day with 18 kills and three blocks, while Lydia Crowe had 14 kills and two blocks. Louis had 29 assists, Luko had 13 aces and Sutherland had 10 aces. “Resilience is a big (theme) for our team this year,” Doescher said. “It’s something we have really worked on the last few seasons. To see this group of girls lose a set or go down a string of points and be able to show that they can stay cohesive and come back is just huge. I’m so proud of them. “We talk a lot about how one bad set or one lost match doesn’t define us as a team. We get to choose the direction of where we go next, and that is exactly what our girls did at the Marshall tournament. They played confident and they played with joy together.   “We had really tough serving from all of our players which disrupted the serve receive of our opponents. Our back row worked together as a unit to provide outstanding defensive pursuit and hustle. And our attackers read the court well, had some aggressive kills as well as smart plays with well placed balls. We showed our resilience the whole tournament.” Now, Doescher and the Vanguards hope to do just that in the postseason. “Our girls are playing with confidence, they are trusting themselves and their teammates,” Doescher said. “The heart they show each match and their genuine support of each other is second to none. You can see it and feel it on the court and on the bench. When you have a group of skilled players who also have those intangibles, they are capable of beating any team on any given night.”