Eleva-Strum girls set new goals going into state tourney

CENTRAL - The primary goal for this season for the Eleva-Strum High School Girls Basketball Team was to make it to the WIAA state tournament.

While the undefeated record and No. 1 state ranking in Division 5 this season is nice, no matter what, the main focus was making it to the Resch.

Now they are there.

After comfortably dispatching Owen-Withee and handing No. 3 ranked Webster its first and only loss this season in last weekend's sectional tournament, this goal, which began a year ago in the wake of a brutal sectional final loss to eventual state runner-up Barneveld, has been reached.

And if the Cardinals want to do more than just be there for the first time since 2008 and the only the second time in school history, new goals have to be set.

Like winning it all.

" We've got to have the mentality like we did today," said E-S's starting point guard junior Avery Glenz. "We're not going to State just to go to State, we’re going to win."

Earning the No. 1 seed in Division 5, the Cardinals will face No. 4 Fall River (17-11) in the state semifinal game at 9:05 a.m. on Friday morning, March 13, at the Resch Center in Green Bay. No. 2 seed Stevens Point Pacelli (23-4) and No. 3 Barneveld (22-7) will face off in the other D-5 state semifinal contest following the Lady Cards’ game. The state championship game is at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 14.

Cardinal head coach Dave Hazuga said his focus will be more on making sure the team plays at its best than on their state tournament opponents.

“Who we play doesn't really change what we do,” he said. "We're going to play to our standard and our style, and we'll have a chance to be successful."

But one thing E-S will not have an advantage at at state compared to the sectional tournament or for much of the regular season is their size and length, especially when it comes to defense.

That's because Fall River, their state semifinal opponent, has plenty of height to match with the Cards starting with 6-0 forward, senior Emma Sampson; 5-11 senior forward senior Ella Beaver; 5-11 senior forward Natalie Feitz; 5-10 sophomore guard Nevaeh Schultz and 5-11 junior forward Clara Mickelson.

Feitz leads the Pirates in scoring averaging nearly 20 points per game (ppg.) followed by Sampson in double figures at 11.1 ppg. and Schultz at 8.4 ppg. Sampson has 312 rebounds on the season followed by Feitz with 226 and Schultz 111. Sampson along with sophomore guard Macey Bukoski led the team in assists with over 80 this season.

Fall River is a classic example of a sports team which struggles early but then something clicks into place and they become champions. In the middle of the 2025-26 season the Pirates were 3-7 having lost four games in a row until they won their next five straight and then won eight of their last nine contests to make it to state for just the fourth time in school history and first since 2019, Their only loss in that time frame was to Oshkosh Lourdes 62-58 who FR turned around and beat two weeks later in the sectional final 58-48. Their head coach Jim Doolittle is veteran at this thing, having coached for 27 years with over 400 wins, 14 of those years at Fall River where's he made the Pirates a top program in the Trailways Conference just north and east of Madison,

Neither team has made it out of the semifinals in their appearances at state. E-S lost to eventual state champs Flambeau back in '08 by a 57-40 margin, so a win by either team will be a first at state. That contrasts greatly with the No. 3 seed in the field, Barneveld. The school qualifies for the State Tournament for the 13th time overall. The Golden Eagles have won six State titles, capturing the Division 4 crowns in 1995, 1998, 1999, 2005 and the Division 5 titles in 2014 and 2015. In addition, they have a Division 4 runner-up finish in 2007 to go with two Division 5 second-place outcomes in 2013 and 2016. They're led again by 40-plus year veteran coach Jim Myers who has nearly 800 wins in his time. Barneveld finished second in the East Division of the Six Rivers Conference during the regular season. The Golden Eagles defeated Independence/Gilmanton 38-34 in the final of the Mauston.

The Eagles finished 17-7 on the season but play a tough schedule against several schools treble their enrollment numbers and such an experience paid off again for them. Of course it also helps to have one of the state's best players on the D-5 level in senior Izzy Durst. The 5-9 guard is averaging 20.2 ppg and leads the team in assists with 147. Also in double figures scoring for the Eagles is 5-6 senior guard Hannah Esch. However, no one else on the squad is averaging more than six points per contest and that's 5-8 senior forward Erin Lasse, who has grabbed over a thousand rebounds this season. Like Fall River, Barneveld struggled at the mid-point of the season and were only 8-7 overall before winning their last nine in a row, including downing top-ranked and Six Rivers Conference rival Pecatonica/Argyle 53-36, whom they had lost to earlier in the season. Durst's scoring goes with a tenacious defense that's collected 371 steals this season and 31 blocks with Durst leading the way with 74 and nine respectively.

Eleva-Strum would like nothing better to get another crack at Barneveld and avenge the sectional finals loss from a year ago. But first they have to win and Barneveld has to beat Pacelli, making their first-ever trip to state in the WIAA. As a former member of WISAA, Pacelli recorded a runner-up finish in Class A in 1983. Pacelli only has 11 players in its entire program but they're good ones with four players in double figures scoring led by 5-11 junior guard Jayden Zdroik at 17.6 ppg. Senior forward Ella Van Order averages nearly 16 ppg.,5-9 junior forward Madelyn Pionek averages 11.3 ppg., and 6-0 junior forward Haylee Cisewski averages 12.2 ppg. Cisewski is the Cardinals top rebounder at nearly seven boards per game and Zdroik also leads the team in assists with 180 this season. Unlike Barneveld and Fall River, the Cards have been consistent winners this season, their losses coming against some of the best girls teams in the state like Mosinee, La Crosse Aquinas, Wittenberg-Birnamwood and St. Mary's Catholic Central spread out amid long winning streaks with wins over top teams like Almond-Bancroft, Lakeland and Marshfield Columbus. They won their league, the CWC South, with a perfect 10-0 mark. Like Coach Hazuga, Pacelli's head coach Allison Smagli has only been at the school for a short while (three seasons) compared to coaches like Myers and Doolittle.

Glenz is averaging nearly 18 ppg. to lead Central scoring and junior guard Maddea Brown is averaging nearly 12 per contest with junior forward Avaya Zwiefelhofer nine points per game and senior 6-1 center Aliza Kulig nearly eight points per contest. Four players average six rebounds or better per game and four players have over 40 assists or more. The Cardinals have also record 411 steals this season led by junior guard Avery Spanberg's 111 and they've recorded nearly 100 blocks led by Zwiefelhofer's 39 and Kulig's 32.