Chaska's fortune the past several seasons has been having one of the school's greatest female athletes ever on its squad. The Hawks' misfortune has been its station in Class 4A, Section 4, where Minnetonka, Shakopee, Prior Lake and Eden Prairie provide cutthroat competition.
Mallory Heyer has moved on and is playing basketball at the University of Minnesota. But the Hawks still have plenty of talent and now, suddenly, have the fortune of being up while the perennial powers are having less success than usual.
Chaska (13-5, 4-0) has its conference race in check and now is tuning up for the section tournament and a possible first state tournament berth since the Hawks won a championship in 2014. Seniors Avery Rosenberg, a 6-1 middle; Ella Christ, an outside hitter; and Kiki Thompson, a setter, give the Hawks strong and experienced leadership.
No. 2-1A Mayer Lutheran (15-3, 2-1) can help with the Hawks' postseason prep. The Crusaders are a dominant program among the state's small schools and tournament-tested. A conference loss to Belle Plaine knocked Mayer Lutheran from the No. 1 spot in the Class 1A rankings it held for most of the season.
The Crusaders lost three very good players to graduation from its 32-2 state championship team last fall, but Gabby Wachholz, Madeline Guetzkow and Stella Maass remain and have Mayer Lutheran possibly headed toward another state tournament appearance.