Watertown-Mayer vs.

Mayer Lutheran

7 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 29

Mayer Lutheran coach Joelle Grimsley has taken her team to the heights of Class 1A volleyball, winning consecutive state championships in 2016 and 2017. She knows what's worth tears along the arduous trail.

At least she thought she knew. Grimsley was shocked last year when, after her two-time defending champion Crusaders lost a five-set battle with community rival Watertown-Mayer, she encountered a despondent group in the postgame locker room.

Perhaps it was because the Crusaders had won the first two sets and failed to finish the job. Perhaps it was because the defending state champions had recorded three consecutive losses in opening last season. Maybe it was because the loss came against friends and rivals, or because it was a young group struggling to form its own identity after graduating nine experienced teammates, including four four-year varsity players.

The Crusaders left the Watertown-Mayer court that day in tears. For Grimsley, the guiding force behind a program that has reached 10 state tournaments in the past 19 years, it was a hard lesson in the shaping of another state championship contender.

Almost a year to the date of the last season's heartbreak, the Crusaders, ranked No. 3 in the Class 1A coaches' preseason poll, have a score to settle at No. 10-2A Watertown-Mayer in our Top Game of the week.  

Mayer Lutheran lost this year's opener 3-0 at No. 9-3A New Prague, but the Crusaders (0-1, 0-0) begin this season with far fewer questions than a year ago, when they took the No. 2 seed into the state tournament before losing in five sets to Medford in the quarterfinals.

Senior middle hitters Claudia Stahlke and Liv Tjernagel, and setter Riley Corrigan played on the 2017 state championship team and have become the type of leaders Grimsley was looking for much of last season.

Stahlke and Tjernagel were chosen to the all-tournament team last season and the 6-foot-2 middle hitters give the Crusaders an imposing front line. Those two, with Corrigan and senior outside hitter Anna Wachholz, captain this senior-dominated squad.

Watertown-Mayer seeks its third consecutive trip to the Class 2A state tournament, but will have to accomplish that without graduated setter Nikki McDonald and hitters Kylie Hoese, Vanessa Schroeder and Janessa Berrios. The Royals (2-2, 0-0) return junior Paige Thibault, who had 23 kills in the last year's victory over Mayer Lutheran.

Sophomore setter Natalie Ernhart, ninth-grade libero Kate Thibault and senior hitter Faith Unglaub also boast valuable experience.