Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Liberty High head coach Randy Dolson was hoping to get a big win in the regular season finale and then get a little healthy before the postseason.

Dolson will have to settle for one out of two.

Playing without a pair of regular starters shorthanded Liberty High and fell to Mount Pleasant 27-25, 14-25, 26-24, 24-26, 16-14 in a wild regular season finale in North Liberty.

Liberty High (13-19) was without its top two setters and freshman hitter Olivia Slattery on Thursday and Dolson hopes to have some combination of that trio back in action when the Lightning open regional play on Oct. 18 at 4A No. 12 Marion.

“Our whole lineup is out of whack with the injuries,” Dolson said. “Hopefully we can get a couple of those kids back and I think we will give Marion a game if we get those kids back.”

Liberty High didn’t miss entering the postseason with momentum by much.

The Lightning led the fifth set 14-12 before Mount Pleasant (12-18) scored four straight points to secure the win.

Liberty High led after the 20-point mark in losses in both the first and third sets but couldn’t hold on while falling for the second time in its last six matches.

“It’s a tough loss especially when the game is that close,” Liberty High sophomore Maya Kerschen said. “I think overall we played pretty well.”

There was plenty to like from the Lightning on Thursday mainly the play of Kerschen and fellow sophomore LeeAnna Potter as the duo combined for 35 of the team’s 53 kills.

There was also a fourth-set rally that saw the Lightning score six of the final seven points in a 26-24 win that forced a fifth set.

“Tonight was a good night to take something from,” Kerschen said. “We will go back and look at what we did well and what we can fix and I think it will help going into our next game.”

Liberty appeared poised to win the opening set after taking a 21-13 lead but Mount Pleasant roared back with a 9-1 run that tied the score at 22.

Liberty High had set point at 25-24 but Mount Pleasant scored the final three points on a pair of Kalynn Batey kills sandwiched around a Liberty High error.

The Lightning scored the final six points of a 25-14 win in the second set to pull even.

“The second set we started talking more and communicating better,” Kerschen said. “We placed the ball better and it started with our passers communication.”

It was a virtual deadlock from that point on.

The teams took turns surrendering late leads in 26-24 sets in the third and fourth sets before the Panthers made the plays late in the fifth set to secure the win.

Liberty High led 11-7 in the fifth set on back-to-back ace serves by Kerschen but Mount Pleasant scored five of the next six points to pull even at 12-all.

A kill by Potter and an ace block by freshman Lauren Roman put Liberty up 14-12 but Mount Pleasant scored the final four points with Sadie Carrasco scoring the final two points on a kill and ace block.

“We’ve only gone to a final game three or four times,” Dolson said. “Our kids haven’t been in that situation too often so hopefully we will learn from it.

Potter had six of her match-high 20 kills in the fifth set while Kerschen added 15 kills, two ace serves and a pair of ace blocks.

Freshman Marit McCaffery had seven kills for the Lightning.

“We will take some fuel from tonight and bring it into next Wednesday against Marion,” Kerschen said.

Dolson hopes to have Slattery, a 6-foot-0 freshman who ranks second on the team with 118 kills back in the lineup for the Class 4A, Region 6 quarterfinal against Marion (25-13) which won the WAMAC tournament on Thursday.

“Regular season is over, we have nothing to lose obviously we are the underdogs next week,” Dolson said. “We just want to have a few good practices and go into Marion knowing that we are underdogs and have nothing to lose and swing away.”

Liberty High              25  25  24  26  14

Mount Pleasant         27  14  26  24  16

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Liberty High

Kara Maiers 4-0-0, Glenda Reighard 0-1-0, Addie Schmeier 0-3-0, Madian Elola 4-0-0, Lauren Roman 2-0-2, Piper Koski 1-0-0, LeeAnn Potter 20-0-2, Sushma Santhana 0-3-0, Maya Kerschen 15-2-2, Marit McCaffery 7-0-0, Team 53-9-6.

Assists – Piper Koski 30, Maya Kerschen 1.

Mount Pleasant

Sadie Carrasco 6-1-0, Maggie Cristoforo 1-0-0, Hannah Hess 0-0-2, Ashlee Menke 3-0-0, Anni Liechty 0-3-0, Kalynn Batey 17-1-0, Jackie Fraise 15-4-0, Dani Broeker 1-3-0, Team 43-12-2.

Assists – Ashlee Menke 24, Anni Liechty 1.