Much like a few days ago with the boys' list, Green County's finest, the Monroe Cheesemakers, made it awfully tough to make the upper echelon of The Monroe Times All-Area Girls Basketball Team.

Monroe's 6-1 sophomore Jamie Armstrong valiantly wrapped up her Player of the Year honor by playing through a lot of pain in her right ankle shortly after suffering a high sprain in Freeport.

Armstrong posted averages of 12.5 points per game to go with 7.7 rebounds, nearly three blocks and about an assist and a half per contest. She also hit more than one-third of her 3-point tries.

After sitting out Monroe's first playoff game against Edgerton, Armstrong got right back to work, and it's a good thing she did, because the second arm of Monroe's 6-foot blockade, Ashley Hermanson, broke loose while her classmate was out of action.

Had Armstrong missed another game or two, who's to say if Hermanson might not have gotten the nod. It just goes to show that, while playing through injuries is rarely the right decision, some stars just have the ability to use adversity to amplify their glow.

Emily Rufenacht's intensity across all 94 feet wouldn't allow her to miss out on filling out the first-team trifecta and sophomore Gwen Sutter makes the second team.

Had Black Hawk's season lasted a couple more games, Paige Butler may have garnered a few more POY votes. The junior combo guard's 16.3 points and eight rebounds per game made her a double-double machine even when the Division 4 Warriors played up a class on occasion. She, along with second-teamer Aryn Wellnitz, also led her club with 2.2 steals per game.

That attention being paid Pecatonica sophomore Kimee Chandler by UW-Milwaukee is merely one piece of evidence that the prototypical point guard has a blindingly-bright future.

She'll hope to carry the torch her departing teammate and close friend, Danielle Senf, set ablaze. Similarly, senior Shanna Karls of New Glarus and Amy Golz all made first team during their senior year swan songs.

Golz turns the reins over to prolific freshman point guard Hayli Peach, who couldn't keep up with Kyleigh Sellnow in the polls for frosh of the year.

Ultimately, much like they did to all forces en route to a Division 2 title, the Lady Cheesemakers blocked a lot of fine names off the top tier. Seniors MacKenzie Hilliard of Monticello and Amber Thomas and Tina Dammen of Argyle all narrowly missed the cut.

Not to worry. It's a good thing, weather eventually permitting, that's it's time for softball.

- Christopher Heimerman is sports editor of The Monroe Times. He can be reached at sportseditor@themonroetimes.com.