Colfax Preparing For Prairie School & Ortiz - WQOW TV: Eau Claire, WI NEWS18 News, Weather, and Sports

Menomonie (WQOW) -- The 38th-annual WIAA State Girls Basketball Tournament tips off Thursday at the Resch Center in Green Bay.  Colfax faces The Prairie School at around 8:15 P.M. in a Division 4 semifinal.

The Vikings practice Tuesday at UW-Stout's Johnson Fieldhouse.  This is the third trip to state for Colfax, but the Vikings are still in search of their first win at state.

"We really feel like we can compete," says Colfax head coach Joe Doucette, "you know we've met every hurdle that we've had. And you know to win a game would be great, to win two would be a dream beyond belief. But we're going to go down there thinking our goal is to be a state champion."

Vikings junior guard Mallie Doucette says, "Like my dad always says at practice, no girls basketball team [from Colfax] has ever won a state runner-up or a state title. So that's definitely our goal, I'm not satisfied with just making it down there. I'm going to be disappointed if we lose that first game."

A big focus for the Vikings this week is how to defend Hawks junior guard Gabrielle Ortiz, who's averaging 21 points per game.  Ortiz already has fourteen Division I college scholarship offers, including Wisconsin and Marquette.

Senior forward Ryleigh Prochnow will likely draw the defensive assignment against Ortiz.

"We take pride in our defense at Colfax," says Vikings senior guard Hannah Hover, "and for the most part we're going to stick to what we do. Ryleigh will do a very good job on her, and I'll spend some time guarding her too if Ryleigh's not guarding her too, kind of switch on and off so hopefully we can wear her out a little bit."

"I don't think most teams are used to our team defense," Prochnow says, "it's kind of a shock because it's just not as easy for them. She's obviously going to score, but I'll do my best to at least make her work for it."