Going to State Never Old Hat for Red Raiders Boys Volleyball

After 29 seasons and nearly 800 victories, Wauwatosa East boys volleyball coach John Simon takes most things in stride.

But getting to the WIAA state tournament is always a treat. This year’s trip — which begins Friday with a 5 p.m. quarterfinal against Germantown at Wisconsin Lutheran College — is no different.

This is the sixth consecutive trip for the Red Raiders, who won it all in 2006.

“This team is as good as any other team that’s made it,” said Simon. “Possibly better because we return so many players.”

East’s overall record is 27-10, and the and then to get to state.

Players to Watch for Tosa East

Max Kilpin, a 6-foot-6 senior, is a first-team all-state middle hitter who will be a high jumper in college. He leads Tosa East in kills (315), hitting percentage (.480), block solos (22) and block assists (44).

“He has basically been, for the most part  — other than a couple times — been pretty unstoppable all year,” Simon said. “It’s a matter if we can get the ball to him or not.”

Zak Sylvester, a senior outside hitter, is probably the best all-around player on the team. “He just does so much for us, receives serves, hits, blocks, does everything very well,” Simon said.

Sam Ingrilli is another senior and the lone setter. He has 866 assists and is second on the team with 22 service aces. “He’s getting better at knowing who to set in certain situations at times when we are stuck and can’t score points,” Simon said.

Junior Ben Mihelich, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, is second on the squad with 212 kills and leads with 30 service aces. “He’s been a very consistent performer and has gotten a lot better the last month of the season,” Simond said. “He turned it up a notch, his jump serve improved, outside hitting improved.”

Sizing Up Germantown

The Warhawks program is only five years old, and Simon said for the first couple years they were not good at all. But they’ve added a lot of athletic talent from the top-ranked basketball team — including Zak Showalter, Jon Averkamp and 6-foot-11 Luke Fischer — and turned this around.

“They’ve got a bunch of athletic players, we’ve got to be careful about that, because athleticism can take you pretty far,” Simon said.

Tosa East won a pool-play matchup with the Warhawks earlier this year, then lost a single-game third-place match at the same tournament.

Marquette, CMH are Favorites

If Tosa East wins Friday, it will face the winner of a quarterfinal matchup of the two teams Simon said are the state’s best — Marquette and Catholic Memorial. The Hilltoppers have knocked Tosa East out of the state finals four times in the last five years, three times in the semifinals.

Catholic Memorial is the defending champion.

The entire tournament will be webcast live by Fox Sports Wisconsin’s PrepZone.