Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – With four matches against top five ranked divisional foes West High has gotten an up-close look at how good the Mississippi Valley Conference is this season.

Class 5A second-ranked Cedar Rapids Jefferson demonstrated on Tuesday why it’s considered one of the best in a conference stacked with ranked teams.

Jefferson had three players with double digit kills in a 25-20, 25-14, 25-18 sweep that dropped ninth-ranked West High (16-10) to 0-4 in Valley Division play.

“It’s a little frustrating knowing that we are 0-4 on our side just because that doesn’t sound like a good record but the teams are so good that we just try to play our best volleyball,” West High senior Colby Greene said. “If we play our best volleyball while losing it’s not as frustrating I guess.”

Just how good has the MVC been this season?

West High is ranked ninth in Class 5A and will enter October seeking its first Valley Division win.

The Women of Troy lost consecutive divisional matches to fifth-ranked Linn-Mar, 4A fourth-ranked Dubuque Wahlert and 4A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier before falling to Jefferson on Tuesday.

If you are counting the other side of the conference features 5A top-ranked Cedar Falls and sixth-ranked Dubuque Hempstead which should make the MVC tournament set for Oct. 14 in Iowa City a battle.

“You look at the flags in the gym and there aren’t any slouches,” first-year West High head coach Scott Sanders said. “In my nine years this is as tough as the conference has been.”

Jefferson showed why it leads the Valley Division on Tuesday.  

The J-Hawks used a 6-0 run to erase a three-point deficit midway through the opening set and controlled the rest of the match while improving to 21-2 and 4-0 in Valley Division play.

Madison Slagle and Sydney Kloubec each had 11 kills for Jefferson while Meghan Prohaska had 10 as the J-Hawks flashed a balanced attack.

“They know what we play against on Tuesday’s because they play against all of them in club and they know the scouting report better than I do,” Sanders said. “On Tuesday’s it’s a battle every night.”

West High was up to the task early, using an 8-1 run to take a 12-9 lead and force a Jefferson timeout.

The J-Hawks responded immediately out of the timeout, rattling off six straight points to take a 15-12 lead they would never give up.

Slagle had three kills during the 6-0 spurt and joined Kloubec with five kills in the opening set.

“They started serving really tough and that’s usually when we have a problem,” Sanders said of the first-set run. “That some inexperience, some technique stuff but you try to work on it every day in practice.”

Jefferson had four of its seven ace serves, all coming from junior Raya George, in a 25-14 second-set win.

“I think they served a lot tougher and we kind of lost motivation,” West High senior Maddie Laffery said. “I think if we could have kept our heads in the game it could have been a lot closer.”

West High led 5-4 early in the third but Jefferson used a 5-0 run to take control and never let go of the lead.

Greene led West High with seven kills while Laffery added six and Claire Overton had five kills and a pair of ace blocks.

“Maddie was spectacular over the weekend and played well again tonight,” Sanders said. “Claire probably had the most kills she’s had all season and we could have gone to her some more but you have to pass well to get to the middle.”

West High played without senior Emily Burtch who missed the match with an injury sustained on Saturday.

The Women of Troy return to action next Tuesday when they will go for their first Valley Division win at Waterloo East (4-16, 1-3)  

(Kills-aces-blocks)

West High

Cailyn Morgan 2-0-0, Rylee Fay 1-1-0, Madeline Laffey 6-0-0, Claire Overton 5-0-2, Ellie Kouba 2-0-0, Colby Greene 7-1-2, Team 23-1-2.

Assists – Rylee Fay 17

Cedar Rapids Jefferson

Maia Augustine 0-1-0, Madison Baxter 2-0-1, Raya George 0-5-0, Kaylee Donner 0-1-0, Madison Slagle 11-0-0, Maggie Peters 2-0-2, Lindsey Culver 6-0-0, Sydney Kloubec 11-0-0, Meghan Prohaska 10-0-0, Team 42-7-3.

Assists – Madison Baxter 29.

West High      20  14  18

CR Jefferson  25  25  25