Student beats teacher as Tosa East is ousted in state quarterfinals by Germantown

It appears Wauwatosa East veteran boys volleyball coach John Simon was just too good of a teacher.

The Tosa East boys volleyball team was making its sixth appearance at state since 2002, while Germantown, in just its fifth year of existence, was making its first.

But young Warhawks coach Brian Rushmer, who played under Simon at Tosa East, got the best of his former coach and team in the quarterfinal round last Friday night.

"It was good to beat my alma mater, no doubt about that," said Rushmer, a 2005 Tosa East graduate. "I owe John so much. I wouldn't be here without John. I've learned so much from him over the last 10 years; it's just unbelievable to be able to play him and beat him in my first match at state."

The fired-up Warhawks won the match, 3-1, over the veteran Red Raider team, 25-14, 20-25, 25-12, 25-23. The amazing thing was two of the sets were rather easy wins against an East team that was ranked in the top five of the final state rankings.

"Even after they beat us in game two, in game three we got that big lead," Rushmer said. "Our general problem has been if we get a big lead, we get relaxed, we stay too calm, lay off the gas. And teams would come back on us.

"But that wasn't the case today. We got a lead. We kept pushing and when we were down we kept pushing, which was huge."

Fighting for their lives in the fourth set, the Red Raiders led 18-13, before Germantown went on an 8-2 run to take a 21-20 lead.

After East battled back to take a 22-21 lead, the Warhawks went on a 3-0 run to lead 24-22. East's Ben Mihelich killed a shot to cut the lead to one, 24-23, but Germantown's Zak Showalter dropped in a soft kill shot in front of the net for the win.

While Germantown's players jumped around, knowing they would play another day at state, the Red Raider players were in a state of shock.

Germantown controlled the net all night with their big men, keeping the ball away from East star Max Kilpin until later in the match. The Red Raiders also didn't help themselves with 14 service errors.

The key for the Warhawks was putting two players on Kilpin's attacks, Rushmer said.

"Our main goal was to stay on Kilpin the whole night," he said. "We kept our middles on Kilpin, even if we had our solos on the outside. And then when we did get the solos on the outside, we got some blocks, which was huge for us. The momentum built all the way through."

Simon gave credit where credit was due.

"They played lights out," he said. "They were really good. They blocked us well. We made a lot of errors. We didn't serve very well. I wished we would have played better. But that's what happens."

Kilpin, the Red Raiders' classy leader, blamed himself for the loss.

"They served well, we struggled passing at the start," he said. "They played really well. They were able to give us a hard time and hurt our passing game and we needed that to get the ball to me.

"I ran into that (the double-teaming) all year. I played awful; I let the team down."

Simon knew that his team's failure to get the ball to his big man was one of the main reasons for the loss.

"We didn't get him the ball very well; as the match wore on, we got him the ball more," he said. "We didn't get him the ball as much as we should have, early in the match to establish the middle.

"That came back to haunt us in the end. Our passing broke down a little bit. In general it was decent. We had to establish the middle and we didn't really do what we normally do.

"I really thought we had a good chance against Germantown. I knew they were athletic. I knew it was going to be rough, but I thought our experience was going to serve us well. Evidently their energy was too much for our experience."

STATE STAT BOARD

Friday, Wis. Lutheran College

Germantown............ 25 20 25 25

Wauwatosa East....... 14 25 12 23

Germantown

KILLS: Matt Schultz (13), Zak Showalter (10)

ASSISTS: Jake Showalter (34)

DIGS: Corey Petta (8), Jake Showalter (7), Schultz (7)

Wauwatosa East

KILLS: Max Kilpin (13), Zak Sylvester (10), Ben Mihelich (9)

ASSISTS: Sam Ingrilli (32)

DIGS: Sylvester (10), Morgan Griffin (5), Ingrilli (5)