Sports

Middleton’s seniors were just beginning 4K the last time the girls volleyball team reached the WIAA Division 1 state tournament.

Middleton head coach Maddie Vogel was just an eighth grader herself. And some of the younger Cardinals had barely learned to walk.

Enough’s enough.

That’s how the 2022 Cardinals feel when it comes to ending Middleton’s 13-year state tournament drought.

“State is very much so a goal for us this year, but it’s far from the only goal,” Vogel said. “We are prioritizing whatever is directly in front of us. With that being said, state is in the back of our minds, and will be a driving force as we train this season.”

With good reason.

Middleton dropped a five-set heartbreaker to Holmen in the sectional finals last season, but bring back five all-conference players from that team.

When you saw them last, Middleton’s boys volleyball team was knocking on the door of a second straight state tournament appearance.

The Cardinals were in the midst of a sensational season and had reached a WIAA Division 1 sectional final. Middleton’s dreams were dashed, though, following a four-set loss to Kettle Moraine in the sectional finals.

Now, several gifted players from that team are back and hungry to reach the state tournament for the second time in three years. Middleton will begin its pursuit of a state tournament berth Thursday, when it opens its new season at the Hartland Arrowhead quadrangular.

“Any time you take a tournament series loss before you get to your goal it hurts, and I know I hurt both for myself and our guys after that one,” Middleton coach Rob Kleinschmidt said of the Cardinals loss to the Lasers. 

Their recent run of success borders somewhere between remarkable and astonishing.

It’s a seven-year stretch that’s easily the best in school history.

And it figures to continue in 2022.

Middleton’s girls swimming and diving team has finished in the top-three at state in six of the last seven years. Along the way, the Cardinals notched WIAA Division 1 state championships from 2016-18 and have a pair of runner-up finishes.

Now, with a deep and gifted group back from last year’s third place team, Middleton appear poised for another magnificent campaign.

“I think our success over the past seasons has been due to the fact that we have a group of kids who are willing to come in and work to be their best every day,” said Middleton coach R.J. Leiferman, whose team begins its new season Friday with a home dual meet against Beloit Memorial. “Hopefully that is something that continues this season.”

They play in arguably the state’s toughest conference.

The sectional is packed with powers year after year.

So being one of the four teams to qualify for the WIAA Division 1 state tournament is a mighty tall task for Middleton’s boys soccer team.

But the Cardinals team will take aim at that — and several other lofty goals — when they begin their new season with a home game against Monona Grove Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

“I think we have a great mix of guys,” Middleton coach Kevin Pauls said. “We'll have a young team and with the senior leadership, we should have a great season. State is always one of our goals.”

Middleton has been one of Wisconsin’s top programs for decades now with 13 trips to state and a championship in 2004. These Cardinals will be looking for the school’s first appearance at state, though, since 2016.

Is it possible?

Given the way things were going in the bottom of the seventh inning of Sunday’s Home Talent League Northern Section semifinals, Middleton’s Andrew Zimmerman could have taken a more patient approach.

Cross Plains relief pitcher Bryce Duhr issued back-to-back walks to begin the inning and then with the bases loaded and one out, Kenny Allen — on in relief of Duhr — missed low with a slider against Zimmerman. So, Zimmerman electing to take a strike before taking his bat off his shoulder wouldn’t have been a bad idea.

It just wasn’t his plan.

“Kenny is a pretty accurate pitcher, so you’re not counting on him to walk you,” Zimmerman said. “I just wanted to drive the ball early in the count — looking for my pitch to hit.”

He got it.

Four seniors from last year’s stellar group have graduated.

There will be huge holes to fill up and down the lineup.

But while players change inside Middleton’s girls tennis program, expectations don’t.

Middleton, which cruised to the Big Eight Conference title and reached the WIAA Division 1 state semifinals last year, will have extremely high hopes again. The Cardinals opened their new season with a home meet against Beloit Memorial Tuesday.

“We had a very successful season last year,” said Middleton coach Mat Given. “We ran into a very hot Neenah squad who went on to win the state title. This year's team is very young and I do have very high expectations of them.”

Rightfully so.

Middleton has arguably the top 1-2 singles punch in the state with junior Netra and senior Sonya Agapov.

In Robert Frost’s brilliant poem, ‘The Road Less Traveled’, he writes of two roads diverging in a yellow wood.

Frost, of course, wished he could have traveled both. Instead, he took the road less traveled which eventually made “all the difference.”

Just 17 months ago, Sam Pilof — a junior outside linebacker at Middleton — found himself feeling much like the 20^th century poet.

In the spring of 2021 — a school year in which fall sports were moved to the spring due to COVID-19 — football and lacrosse were being played at the same time. Those happened to be Pilof’s two favorite sports, and he was about to take the road less traveled.

After some soul searching, though, Pilof changed direction and chose the road more commonly journeyed.

“I was getting looked at for lacrosse and thought that was my best move,” Pilof said. “I was definitely going to play lacrosse. But I’ve always loved football and I was like, ‘This is what I want to do.’ ”

TOWN OF MERTON — Twelve months ago, Middleton’s football team seemed poised to open the season with a huge win at traditional powerhouse Bay Port.

The Cardinals controlled play for three quarters and led, 14-6, heading to the fourth.

Then, the wheels fell off.

The host Pirates scored 20 points in a 4 ½ minute stretch and rallied for a 26-14 win. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, it wasn’t the last time they’d struggle in the fourth quarter in 2021.

“That was a trend last year,” Middleton coach Jason Pertzborn said of rough fourth quarters.

And it’s one the Cardinals focused on much of the offseason.

Bay Port comes to Middleton Thursday night in the season-opener for both teams. And the Cardinals believe they’ll be a much better fourth quarter team this season.

Nine months ago, Jackson Mefford walked off the field in Sun Prairie dejected, disheartened, doleful.

Mefford and his Middleton football team had just fallen to Sun Prairie in Level 3 of the WIAA Division 1 playoffs. And if that loss wasn’t bad enough, Mefford had a sobering thought as he left the field.

“I thought to myself, this was going to be the best team I ever played on at Middleton,” said Mefford, now a senior offensive lineman.

That seemed like a reasonable belief.

The 2021 Cardinals reached Level 3 of the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Middleton finished second in the rough and tumble Big Eight Conference.

And even though Middleton’s season ended against eventual state runner-up Sun Prairie, MHS experienced a joyride many weren’t sure could be repeated.

Today, Mefford has a different outlook.

Brad Rogeberg knows he’s been dealt a terrific hand.

Middleton’s defensive coordinator has had years where he’s missing a card here or there.

That won’t be the case in 2022.

“If we have to go big, we can go as big as we need to,” Rogeberg said. “And if we play a team that spreads us out and throws the ball all over the place, we can adjust to that, too.

“We’ve got a lot of players and a lot of options. On paper, the kids have worked really hard and are doing good things. It could be a special group.”

Middleton, which opens its season by hosting Bay Port on Aug. 18, seemingly has standouts all over the field.

Junior outside linebacker Sam Pilof holds four NCAA Division 1 scholarship offers and is quickly becoming one of the most heavily recruited players in school history. Gus Wenning was an all-region defensive end last year and moves to inside linebacker where he could be a terror.