Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Prior to Tuesday Regina hadn’t given much thought to winning the River Valley Conference tournament.

That changed quickly following a pair of wins in RVC Tournament pool play on Tuesday at Regina.

Class 2A No. 11 Regina (24-7) downed Cascade 21-15, 21-12 and outlasted No. 13 North Cedar 21-18, 15-21, 15-12 to win Pool C and punch its ticket to the eight-team RVC tournament on Thursday in Camanche.

“Right now, it’s the top priority,” Regina junior Alex Wiese said of winning a conference tournament title. “We try to take it one thing at a time and that’s the next goal.”

Wiese made sure Regina got a shot at that goal with her performance on Tuesday.

The junior had a team-high seven kills in a sweep of Cascade and then pounded six of her match-high 15 kills in the third set against North Cedar (20-14).

“Alex had blossomed more and more as the season has gone on,” Regina coach Jordyn Akers said. “We have been finding more and more rotations that we can do certain things in and ways that we can put her in different spots to be successful.”

In its first match since Sept. 28 Regina made short work of Cascade in its opener on Tuesday.

The Regals found the going much tougher against North Cedar in the finale.

Regina trailed by as many as five at 11-6 in the opening set before using a 3-0 run fueled by back-to-back Jaedynn Evans kills to take its first lead at 18-17.

A kill by North Cedar setter Sydney Dennis tied the score at 18 but the Regals scored the final three points to win the match with back-to-back kills by Wiese sealing the 21-18 win.

“We hadn’t played in a while so I felt like we were kind of rusty,” Wiese said. “This helped just getting able to play.”

North Cedar broke a 9-all tie in the second set with a 4-0 run and never trailed again.

Senior Darby Hawtrey had seven of her team-high 12 kills during the second set as the Knights evened the match.

The third set went back and forth with North Cedar using a 4-0 run to take an 11-10 lead.

That’s when Wiese took over.

A kill by Alexa Lehman evened the score at 11 and Wiese scored the final three Regina points with kills as the Regals closed the match on a 5-1 run.  

“We know how good we are and we never lose the confidence that we can come back when we have a deficit,” Regina senior setter Emily Bonnett said. “We are comfortable being where we are and we don’t settle that we are going to lose a match. We always know we can win a match.”

Regina joins South Division foes Tipton, West Liberty, Wilton and Durant in the eight-team RVC championship bracket along with North Division opponents North Cedar, Bellevue and host Camanche.

“We are definitely excited for Thursday,” Akers said. “There were a lot of cheers in the locker room after the game.”

Regina            21  15  15

North Cedar    18  15  12

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Regina

Alex Wiese 15-0-0, Emily Bonnett 2-0-0, Ellie VanLandschoot 0-0-1, Alexa Lehman 3-0-0, Clare Dunne 1-0-0, Jaedynn Evans 10-0-0, Katrina Chambliss 4-0-0, Team 35-0-1.

Assists – Emily Bonnett 25, Jaedynn Evans 1. 

North Cedar

Sydney Dennis 2-0-0, Katie Thompson 2-0-0, Darian Gray 3-1-1, Darby Hawtrey 12-2-0, Emma Boelyn 1-0-2, Nicole Sander 2-0-1, Team 22-3-4.

Assists – Sydney Dennis 6, Taylor Tenley 5, Darian Gray 1.