Grace Swenning serves against Tipton. Photo by Darren Miller. By Ryan Murken Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The objective for the Regina seniors on Tuesday was to make sure their final match at home didn’t turn into the final match of their career.

Sarah Lehman and Olivia Wolfe and the rest of the Regals took care of those concerns quickly against Lisbon.

Wolfe and Lehman combined for 22 kills as Regina swept Lisbon 25-16, 25-13, 25-14 in a Class 2A, Region 7 opener at Regina.

“This is the seniors last game at home and that’s what we talked about is make sure we got a win and kept our season going,” Lehman said. “We are really looking forward to next week.”

Wolfe had a match-high 12 kills and Lehman added 10 as Regina recorded its first sweep in a best of five match this season.

“It meant a lot to me to pull out a win but also just to play well in our last game here,” Wolfe said. “We just really wanted to get past this point so it was pretty awesome.”

Regina senior Sarah Lehman Regina improved to 22-13 with the win and advanced to the Region 7 quarterfinals where it will face River Valley Conference rival West Branch on Monday for the fourth time this season.

After winning the first two meetings with West Branch the Regals were swept by the Bears in the RVC tournament last week on its way to a 1-2 finish in the two-day event.

Monday’s 7 p.m. quarterfinal in West Branch offers a shot a redemption.

“My worst fear today was they were looking straight to West Branch, especially with the loss last week they have just been chomping at the bit,” Regina coach Kara Kimm said. “I was just hoping we could come out and play a strong match and get the confidence that we need for Monday and I think we definitely were able to do that.”

There was no looking ahead for Regina on Tuesday.

The Regals didn’t trail in either of the first two sets, opening the match with back-to-back impressive wins.

Regina jumped to a 9-2 lead in the opening set and put the set away with a 7-1 run that featured a pair of kills from Wolfe and gave the Regals a 21-13 lead.

“I thought we came out strong,” Kimm said. “We had a lot of good solid hits, the offense looked good, we were clicking we got fooled a couple of times but overall I think that’s the best match we’ve had all year from the start to finish.”

Unlike previous matches, Regina never took its foot off the gas on Tuesday.

The Regals built a 9-2 lead in the second set and raced to a 25-13 win.

Regina trailed 2-0 in the third set but responded by scoring the next four points and never trailed again.

A 9-0 run that featured three kills by Lehman gave Regina a 17-7 cushion that was never challenged.

“I think for the seniors it meant a lot because we’ve had a rough last couple of games,” Regina senior setter Grace Swenning said. “To be able to play well and win in three in our last night here was pretty special for us.”

Junior Alexa Lehman added seven kills for Regina as the Regals finished with a 34-19 advantage in kills.

Alexa Lehman had three of the Regals’ 10 ace serves while Sarah Lehman and Katelyn Murhammer each added two.

Regina can now turn its attention to West Branch which defeated the Regals 22-20, 21-5 in pool play of the RVC tournament last Tuesday.

“I think we got into our heads too much that we had already beat them twice we can’t underestimate them because they are a great team,” Wolfe said. “We just have to play our game like we know we can.”

Lisbon 16 13 14
Regina 25 25 25

(Kills-aces-blocks)
Regina
Katelyn Murhammer 0-2-0, Katrina Chambliss 2-1-0, Grace Swenning 0-1-0, Sarah Lehman 10-2-0, Alexa Lehman 7-3-1, Olivia Wolfe 12-0-0, Katie Dunn 1-0-1, Morgan Parthemore 0-1-0, Josie Krueger 2-0-0, Team 34-10-2.
Assists – Grace Swenning 29, Katrina Chambliss

Lisbon
Lexi Williams 2-0-0, Izzy Steele 2-0-0, Hannah Sperfslage 0-1-0, Karlie Krob 6-2-0, Reegan Happel 4-0-0, Greta Albaugh 4-0-0, Kate Kitterman 1-0-1, Team 19-3-1.
Assists – Samantha Schrantz 5, Morgan Kortemeyer 5.