Falcon boys cruise past Bradford in opener

By Dan Truttschel/Sports Correspondent

The recent roll continued last week for the Westosha Central boys volleyball team.

And what that meant was the Falcons lived to fight another day in the WIAA Division 1 State Tournament.

Central relied on its experience to outlast a valiant early effort by visiting Kenosha Bradford en route to a 25-14, 25-18, 25-12 victory in a match that took just 55 minutes to complete.

The Falcons, who now have 14 of their last 15 matches, hosted Racine Case Tuesday night in a sectional semifinal. Case advanced with a 25-11, 22-25, 25-10, 26-24 win last week over Racine Park.

A victory Tuesday would send Central to a sectional final Thursday at Burlington against either the top-seeded Demons or Kenosha Indian Trail.

Central coach Wayne Schultz was relieved to see his team overcome a bit of a slow start against Bradford.

“We’ve been playing well,” he said. “We didn’t play our sharpest game. We did what we needed to do.”

The third and deciding set was all Falcons from the beginning. Central jumped out to a 6-0 lead and then reeled off 10 of 11 points, including a block by Luke Werth and an ace by Mike Skora to take a 17-4 lead.

Skora closed out the match with one of his team-high eight kills.

“We got some young guys in there (in the third set) that actually made their serves,” Schultz said. “We made some changes in that third set and did pretty well.”

The first two sets were much more competitive.

Tremper held a 12-10 lead in the first set before Central rallied for six straight points to build an 18-10 lead and never looked back. A double block by Werth and Glenn Karsten closed out the rally.

The second set was back and forth throughout, as both teams exchanged leads through the first 20 points. Central finally jumped in front on a kill by Karsten.

Tremper tried to rally late in the set on a big kill by Jake Christensen through a Falcons’ double block that pulled the Trojans to within four points at 22-18.

But that was as close as the Trojans would come, as Central scored the next three points to close out the set.

“We had a little bit of a slow start,” Schultz said. “They came out and served aggressively in the beginning of the match. It kind of rocked us back on our heels.”

Leaders for the Falcons included Skora with eight kills; Karsten with eight kills and two blocks; Jon Sattersten with six kills; Brooks Gahart with 25 assists; Nick Picchietti with six digs; Werth with two blocks; and Kyle Foulke with four aces.


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