Tigers voted top seed in D-5 playoff bracket

By JASON JUNO

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MERCER, Wis. — Mercer will enter the WIAA postseason as a No. 1 seed once again.

Coaches voted the Tigers the top seed at Sunday’s seeding meeting ahead of the Oct. 22 start to the playoffs.

The powerhouse program has been the No. 1 seed for six straight years and in eight of the last nine. They’ve won the regional championship the past eight seasons, including as a 2 seed in 2018, the only time since their regional title streak started in 2016 that they weren’t the 1 seed.

All of those seasons were played in Division 4. The WIAA added a fifth division and tiny Mercer is in the newly added Division 5 this year. Many of the opponents are the same though with much of the Northern Lights Conference in their bracket in addition to other teams from the far north.

The top seed keeps Mercer at home through the sectional semifinal. That means a potential matchup of the top two seeds —both top 10 teams in the state — in the semi, Mercer and Prentice, would be in Mercer.

First, the Tigers need to win a ninth straight regional championship, something they aren’t taking for granted, even as the favorite.

“We have to give everything we got in every match,” Mercer coach Robyn Schoeneman said. “There are no more tomorrows and with the three seniors we have (Eiley Schoeneman, Jenny Klopatek and Rylinn Rossi), I know they will do whatever it takes to keep things rolling.”

Mercer received a first-round bye as did all of the top four seeds, No. 2 Prentice, No. 3 Winter and No. 4 Mellen.

The Tigers will host the winner of a first-round matchup between No. 9 Northwood and No. 8 South Shore on Oct. 24. The regional final is set for Oct. 26, which they’d also host. If high seeds win out, Mercer would host No. 4 Mellen, which they just beat 3-1 last week.

The sectional semifinal would be next, on Oct. 31. If high seeds win out, Prentice would come to Mercer for a big-time matchup. Mercer beat Prentice in five sets to get to the sectional final in 2021 and 2022. The matchup didn’t happen last year as Prentice advanced to state without having to get past Mercer.

Mercer edged Prentice for the 1 seed this year despite dropping a close match 25-20, 20-25, 15-9 in a tournament at Prentice in early September.

That was their only meeting of the regular season. Mercer sits at 22-7 and ranked fifth in the state coaches’ poll and Prentice is 19-11 and ranked ninth.

“I keyed in on the improvement this team has made since the beginning when we lost to Prentice in their tournament. The scores of that match were so even,” Schoeneman said.

She also presented the results of matches against comparable opponents. The Tigers beat Chequamegon easily, but Prentice lost a set to the Screaming Eagles. Mercer beat Gilman without a problem, but Prentice lost a couple of sets to the Pirates.

“While I do think Prentice’s strength of schedule is a little stronger than ours, we play who we play and do the very best we can to build a strong tournament schedule,” Schoeneman said. For example, they were second at big-school Northwestern’s tournament.

Schoeneman could do without the first-round bye that the top four seeds get, but she’ll definitely take the run of home matches.

“I would much rather be playing, but we will take the rest time,” she said. “Home-court advantage is huge this time of year. I have been told our gym is a very hard place to play. We call it home.”

Mercer has run through the Northern Lights Conference schedule without a loss; a home match against Bayfield wraps up the regular season on Thursday. The Tigers did encounter some adversity last week when Kaylee Powers broke her arm in a match against Lac Courte Oreilles.

“We had one day of practice before we played Mellen for the conference lead, but we made it work,” Schoeneman said. “I look forward to three good days of practice this week to get things back on track. I have no doubt that things will fall into place going into postseason play.”

Mercer made it to the sectional final in 2021 and 2022 but fell to Chippewa Falls McDonell Central, a team they won’t have to deal with this year as they’re in Division 3. A possible opponent in the sectional final would be a different private school, Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran (28-5), ranked first in the state in Division 5.

Tournament Schedule

Tuesday, Oct. 22

No. 12 Bayfield at No. 5 Butternut

No. 11 Lac Courte Oreilles at No. 6 Drummond

No. 10 Birchwood at No. 7 Solon Springs

No. 9 Northwood at No. 8 South Shore

Thursday, Oct. 24

Northwood/South Shore at No. 1 Mercer

Birchwood/Solon Springs at No. 2 Prentice

LCO/Drummond at No. 3 Winter

Bayfield/Butternut at No. 4 Mellen

Saturday, Oct. 26

Regional finals at higher seeds

Thursday, Oct. 31

Sectional semifinals at higher seeds

Saturday, Nov. 2

Sectional final at Bruce

Thursday, Nov. 7

State semifinals at Green Bay

Saturday, Nov. 9

State finals at Green Bay