Hilltoppers always a state threat at the net
Marquette has made it work.
If you want a nice, clean way to sum up the season for the Hilltoppers boys volleyball team, that’s all you have to say. They’ve overcome an unexpected loss due to injury. They’ve played through inexperience. They’ve taken position changes in stride.
A transition year on multiple levels has gone especially well.
“I think we’re peaking at the right time,” senior Joe DeStefanis said. “We’ve had some ups and downs throughout the season, but I would say our sectional final match against Whitefish Bay was one of the best matches we’ve played all year.”
That is the state of Marquette as it heads into its 17th straight WIAA state tournament. One year after winning the championship with a veteran team that spent the entire season ranked No. 1 in the state, the Hilltoppers are a wild card in the tournament, which will be played Friday and Saturday at Wisconsin Lutheran College.
While they don’t come close to matching the experience of last year’s team, they do have victories over the tournament’s top seeds, No. 1 Germantown and No. 2 Kimberly.
“Once we get to this part of the tournament, it’s really just putting everything together and making your kids believe that you have a shot to win, and they definitely do,” said Marquette coach Eric Sullivan, whose Hilltoppers are seeded fourth in the eight-team field.
The story of the 2018 season began long before practice when senior David Kopriva learned that issues with both his knees would sideline him for the season. Not only was he the team’s top returning player and a college prospect, but as a middle blocker he held down a difficult position.
The loss created a ripple effect. DeStefanis, who was set to play libero, ended up at outside hitter. Nolan Baldewicz, another senior, moved from the middle to outside. That helped open the door for 6-foot-6 Robbie Stegeman and 6-1 Gavin Falvey, two juniors, to get their feet week on varsity at middle blocker.
“At the beginning of the year, the starting lineup had played together for maybe six days before that first match of the year against Catholic Memorial, so there was a sense of unknown,” DeStefanis said of the team’s 3-1 loss to the Crusaders. “We didn’t necessarily know what to expect from each other. A lot of us were seniors, but we never had that lineup on the floor at the same time.”
That loss was followed by fifth-place finishes in tournaments hosted Kettle Moraine and New Berlin United. About a month after the start of practice, the team broke through at the Kaukauna Invitational, defeating top-ranked Germantown in the quarterfinals before knocking off Kaukauna and Kimberly in straight sets in the final two rounds.
“We split with Catholic Memorial to even get out of pool play,” Sullivan recalled. “That was most definitely a turning point for us. … That gave us a ton of energy and a ton of momentum. That was a loaded tournament. All eight of the top teams were there.”
Marquette followed that with a second-place showing at the Middleton Invite, though it beat Germantown for the second straight week.
This year’s team has developed good balance.
DeStefanis, who averages a teamhigh 2.5 kills per set, is the team’s go-to hitter, but senior Sam Larscheid also is averaging 2.5 kills per set followed by Baldewicz (2.3).
Charlie Brockman, the team’s senior setter, took the reins from state player of the year Conor Ward and has provided energy, enthusiasm and nine assists per set. Senior Jack Blair, who doubles as a standout golfer in the spring, has been a steady force at libero.
“There were a lot of low expectations from other teams,” DeStefanis said. “I’d heard from my club teammates that ‘You guys aren’t going to be that good this year’, but we were so excited to prove other people wrong.”
Germantown came back to win the next two meetings against Marquette to claim the Greater Metro regular-season and tournament titles, but the seeds of success were already planted.
“Having that Marquette High emblem on your jersey and the Marquette on the back just forces you to play with a sense of pride. This is what we represent,” DeStefanis said. “It’s our chance to write our own story in the Marquette High legacy and to put another number on the wall like we did last year. I wouldn’t say it’s a pressure. It allows us to play with a lot of pride.”