State sports briefs: State football playoffs begin Tuesday night

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The road to a state championship begins tonight for 224 Wisconsin high school football teams. The playoffs begin with 16 games in each of seven divisions.

Yesterday, the final AP poll came out – and it had a new leader among the large schools. Franklin took over the number-one spot from Mequon Homestead, which dropped to second. Waunakee is third, and all three schools enter the post-season at 9-0. Kewaunee remained atop the poll for the medium-sized schools, with Maple Northwestern second and Appleton Xavier third. Edgar finished number-one among the small schools, after leading the poll the entire season. Darlington was second, and Fond du Lac Springs third. The schools that qualified for the playoffs were not placed in divisions until after last week’s regular season finales. Tonight’s winners will advance to the second round on Saturday.

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Milwaukee Admirals’ rookie Linus Klasen has been named the American Hockey League’s player-of-the-week. The left wing had three goals and three assists in three games during the weekend. Klasen scored the game-winning goal at Grand Rapids on Friday night. And his goal on Sunday at Chicago gave him a league-high seven for the young season. Meanwhile, the Admirals’ parent NHL team – the Nashville Predators – have reassigned defenseman Teemu Laakso to Milwaukee. Laakso played in Nashville’s 1-nothing win over Dallas on Saturday. He’s had four assists in five games for the Admirals.

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Uiversity of Wisconsin forward Chris Prince has been named the men’s offensive soccer player-of-the-week in the Big Ten Conference. And the Badgers’ Laurie Nosbusch was given the same honor for the women. Prince, a freshman forward, had five goals in two games last week – including a hat trick against Northwestern. Nosbusch, a junior co-captain, scored both goals in a 2-0 shut-out of Michigan State.

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University of Wisconsin senior Allison Wack was named the Big Ten’s volleyball player-of-the-week. Wack, an outside hitter, had a career high 25 kills in a win over Iowa – and she tied a career-high of 17 digs in that match. She also had 21 kills and 17 digs against Minnesota, giving her back-to-back 20-plus kill matches for the first time.

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J.C. Banks of UW-Green Bay is the Horizon League men’s soccer player-of-the-week. The senior mid-fielder had two goals last week. Banks scored the game-winner against Wisconsin, and had the only goal in a 1-nothing Green Bay win over Valparaiso. Also, Kerri Schuh of UW-Milwaukee was named the league’s volleyball player-of-the-week on offense. The junior right-side hitter had 15 digs, 11 kills, and 10 assists in a Panthers’ victory over Cleveland State.

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