Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports                                               

IOWA CITY – As City High worked and worked and worked at serving throughout the season Craig Pitcher had the same reminder for his team.  

“I told them we don’t have to serve aces we just need to serve strong,” Pitcher said. “I kept telling them aces will come if we serve strong and we serve the right people.”

The aces couldn’t have started coming at a better time for the Little Hawks.

City High matched a season-high with 11 ace serves on Wednesday in a 25-21, 25-14, 25-15 sweep of Davenport West in a Class 5A, Region 8 quarterfinal at City High.

Mackenzie Murphy had 10 kills and eight of the Little Hawks’ 11 ace serves as City High (16-16) advanced to the Region 8 semifinals where it will face No. 10 Bettendorf on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“We’ve been working on serving stronger at the zones that we are given,” Murphy said. “We aren’t trying to ace it we are just trying to get it in with an aggressive serve.”

Kelsey Law had a match-high 13 kills and Mia Loughran added nine kills as City High finished with a 41-18 edge in kills.

The attacking edge was only one piece of the puzzle for City High on Wednesday as the Little Hawks finished with 11 aces to one for the Falcons.

“We work on that a lot at practice,” Loughran said. “We want to serve as aggressively as we possibly can.”

Aggressive serving helped City High work its way out of an early deficit on Wednesday.

Davenport West took a 5-1 lead in the opening set and led 15-13 after back-to-back kills by Jalissa Pfeiffer and Sara Weisrock.

City High responded with a 5-0 run, taking its first lead of the match on back-to-back aces by Murphy.

“In the postseason regardless of who you are playing there are those initial nerves and I think we were scared to make mistakes,” Pitcher said. “We were hitting well in warmups and as soon as the first whistle came we didn’t want to make a mistake.”
City High wouldn’t trail again in the opening set, securing the win on an Ellie Evans kill.

The Little Hawks broke open a close second set by scoring 12 of the final 14 points.

Murphy had two ace serves during a 5-0 City High spurt that turned a 13-12 lead into an 18-12 advantage.

“I think we had better ball control and just did the little things better,” Murphy said. “I just think we played better in general.”

City High never trailed in the third set, using a 6-0 run to break open a one-point lead.

Law had five of her match-high 13 kills in the third set as City High secured the sweep.

“The last third of that first set and sets two and three they finally just relaxed and were aggressive,” Pitcher said. “We shored up some things defensively, we worked to get in better spots and it paid off.

City High will get a third match at tenth-ranked Bettendorf on Tuesday.

The Bulldogs defeated City High 20-22, 21-10, 15-11 last month and 25-13, 25-21 earlier this month at their home tournament.

“We are ready,” Loughran said. “I think of it as a new game just like we’ve never played them.”

City High                   25  25  25

Davenport West        21  14  15

(Kills-aces-blocks)

City High

Lindsey Bolton 2-2-0, Mackenzie Murphy 10-8-2, Ellie Evans 6-0-0, Kelsey Law 13-0-0, Mia Loughran 9-0-1, Cecilia Aldrich Ingram 1-0-0, Alia Vanderhoef 0-1-0, Team 41-11-3.

Assists – Lindsey Bolton 32, Mackenzie Murphy 2

Davenport West

Hannah Jones 4-0-0, Jalissa Pfeiffer 1-0-0, Lauren Oostendorp 1-0-2, Abby Ratermann 3-0-0, Sara Weisrock 7-0-0, Kassie Crow 1-0-0, Baylee Kronfeld 1-1-0, Team 18-1-2.

Assists –  Hanna Willers 6, Baylee Kronfeld 4.