Area high school volleyball teams now know their first opponent for the WIAA girls state tournament.
Tournament play will get underway Oct. 21 in divisions 2-5 and Oct. 23 for Division 1 teams.
Suring, Oconto Falls, Wittenberg-Birnamwood and Lena have a bye in the first round and will play their first match Oct. 23 in the regional semifinal round.
Bonduel is one of the teams that will open tournament play with a home match, as the Bears are a No. 7 seed in Division 3 and will host another Central Wisconsin Conference-East team - 10th-seeded Menominee Nation - Oct. 21.
Both teams struggled against CWC-East teams this season. The Bears wrapped up conference matches Oct. 14 with a 3-0 loss to Weyauwega-Fremont.
Bonduel scored the first point in each set but never led by more than a point and spent most of the match playing from behind.
The Warhawks opened the match with 25-15 and 25-16 wins before completing the sweep with a 25-17 victory.
The Bears also wrapped up the regular season Oct. 16 with a nonconference home match with Denmark.
“I think we just struggled to pass and struggled to communicate outside of that,” coach Abby Krull said. “It’s something we definitely have to focus on in practice in the next few days.”
Bonduel rolled through the regional and sectional rounds of last year’s tournament and advanced to state for the first time in program history.
“We have to learn what we can from it, put it behind us and move on to the next one,” Krull said. “We can’t change anything that happened tonight. We can only change what we need to change for tomorrow and the next day. That has to be our focus so we’re ready to go when Tuesday rolls around.”
Tournament matchups involving area teams are:
Division 1
Kimberly Sectional
Oct. 23: No. 11 Ashwaubenon at No. 6 Pulaski
Division 2
Seymour Sectional
Oct. 23: No. 6 Notre Dame or No. 11 Green Bay West at No. 2 Oconto Falls
Altoona Sectional
Oct. 21: No. 9 Shawano at No. 8 Merrill
Division 3
Chilton Sectional
Oct. 21: No. 10 Menominee Nation at No. 7 Bonduel
Oct. 23: No. 5 Wittenberg-Birnamwood at No. 4 Amherst
Division 5
Northland Pines Sectional
Oct. 21: No. 12 Wolf River Lutheran at No. 5 Tigerton; No. 10 Oneida Nation at No. 7 Gresham; No. 11 Pembine/Goodman at No. 6 Gillett; No. 11 Stockbridge at No. 6 Marion; No. 9 Bowler vs. No. 8 Providence Academy in Green Bay.
Oct. 23: No. 8 St. Thomas Aquinas Academy or No. 9 Wausaukee at No. 1 Suring; No. 5 Lena at No. 4 Elcho.
Regional finals in all five divisions are set for Oct. 25; sectional semifinals will be played Oct. 30; and sectional finals are scheduled for Nov. 1. The state tournament will be held Nov. 6-8 at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
