Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Shauntina Williams can hammer the volleyball with the best of them.

Williams proved that in Tuesday’s WAMAC West showdown with Class 4A No. 8 Independence.

The Clear Creek Amana junior also showed on Tuesday she is a lot more than just a player who can pound the ball.

Williams showed off her widened array of offensive attacks on her way to a match-high 14 kills but it wasn’t enough as eighth-ranked Independence (13-1) swept Clear Creek Amana 25-10, 25-14, 25-23 in Tiffin.

“It’s not about how hard you can hit it’s how smart of a hitter you can be,” Williams said. “I’ve tried to work on that and I think I’ve improved on that.”

Williams was the bright spot for Clear Creek Amana (6-9) on Tuesday as the Clippers dropped to 2-1 in WAMAC West play.

The junior middle had all 14 of her kills in the final two sets, including eight in the 25-23 third set.  

“The third set I think is something we can build on going forward,” Williams said. “That set we came and had fun and just played volleyball and I think we are much better when we do that.”

Independence got 13 kills from Madison Larson and eight from Allie Joe Zieser while improving to 2-1 in WAMAC West Division play.

Alaina Butters, Allison Doyle and Holly Cooksley all had six kills as Independence ran its winning streak to seven.

“Independence did a great job,” Clear Creek Amana coach Jackie Clubb said. “They played great defense, they put up a good block and we just couldn’t get the job done.”

Independence never trailed in the first two sets rolling to wins of 25-10 and 25-14.

Williams got rolling in the third as Clear Creek Amana played its best volleyball of the match.

Back-to-back Williams kills put Clear Creek Amana up 4-1.

After Independence used a 4-0 run to take a 10-9 lead Williams again had a pair of kills for consecutive Clear Creek Amana points to even the match at 11.

“I was wanting the ball in the third set,” Williams said. “When you get in a rhythm like that you want to try to get the ball every time if you can.”

Williams kept Clear Creek Amana in the final set until the end.

Williams kept Independence off balance mixing in tips and cross-court shots to go with her patented hard swings that resulted in rocket-like kills.

Her only ace block of the match tied the score at 22 and her 14th kill pulled the Clippers to within 24-23 before Independence clinched the win on a Larson kill.

“Watching college games yes they hit hard but they work on their shots and that’s the thing that I’ve tried to work on,” Williams said. “I’m trying to be a smart player rather than a player that just hits the ball hard.”

Williams had a breakthrough performance last week with 20 kills in a five-set win over Benton Community.

That performance was a confidence boost for Williams who has moved to the middle this season after playing outside the past two seasons.

“That was big for her confidence,” Clubb said. “She came out in game five right away and did everything we asked her to do and owned it and she was pretty much unstoppable after that.”

Williams is averaging better than 4.1 kills per set in three WAMAC matches this season.

“We’ve been working in practice with her getting a lot more reps out of the middle,” Clubb said. “Out of the middle she can get more kills than she can on the pin right now.”

Claire Schwarting added three kills for the Clippers and Zoey Boehme had three ace serves.

“We are there we just aren’t consistent,” Clubb said. “That inexperience comes with our youth and it comes with our lack of varsity experience but we are going to see what we can do”

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Independence

Holly Cooksley 6-1-0, Sydney Hearn 0-3-0, Allie Jo Zieser 8-0-0, Allison Doyle 6-0-0, Madison Larson 13-1-0, Mackenzie Hupke 3-0-0, Alaina Butters 6-1-0, Team 42-6-0.

Assists – Holly Cooksley 10, Abby Davis 9, Sydney Hearn 2.

Clear Creek Amana

Jane Wilms 1-0-0, Cheyaenne Bunch 0-1-0, Zoey Boehme 0-3-0, Shauntina Williams 14-0-1, Kelsey Lipkea 0-1-0, Claire Schwarting 3-0-0, Hailey Pollock 2-0-1, Karsyn Stratton 1-0-0, Lauren Riggle 1-0-0, Team 21-5-2.

Independence            25  25  25

Clear Creek Amana     10  14  23

Assists – Zoey Boehme 11, Cheyaenne Bunch 6.