Ryan Murken
Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Throughout the regular season Jaedynn Evans made her biggest impact for Regina as a hitter.

On Monday Evans showed she didn’t need to hammer a bunch of kills to make her mark on a match.

Evans had four ace serves, an ace block and 10 digs in a 25-20, 25-18, 25-18 sweep of West Branch (10-23) in a Class 2A, Region 8 quarterfinal at Regina.

“She can be all over the place,” Regina coach Jordynn Akers said of Evans. “She can have one or two kills and still be a key player on the court handling just about anything that is thrown at her.”

Evans did a little bit of everything on Monday as No. 11 Regina (26-8) advanced to the Region 8 semifinals.

The 5-foot-9 junior had four ace serves during an 8-0 second-set run that helped Regina overcome a 17-15 deficit.

Evans had just one kill during the second set but helped Regina take a two sets to none lead with her blocking and serving.

“We’re a team,” Evans said. “Whatever I can do to help us win is what I want to do, as long as my teammates are putting it away I’m fine.”

Alex Weise led Regina with 10 kills while Evans added seven as Regina advanced with its third win of the season over West Branch.

Regina will host Van Buren (20-10) in a regional semifinal on Thursday at 7 p.m.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times in a season,” Evans said. “Tonight, we pulled it together at the right time.”

Regina need late rallies in each of the first two sets to overcome a game West Branch squad.

The Bears got a match-high 13 kills from junior Abbey Fryauf and led 19-18 in the opening set and 17-15 in the second before Regina rallied.

“There were some stretches where it looked promising but Regina didn’t quit,” West Branch coach John Walsh said. “They kept after it and they kept chipping away at the couple of leads that we got and they stayed in the match. They didn’t fold when they got down.”

West Branch trailed 15-9 in the opening set but used a 4-0 run that featured three kills from sophomore Kaiya Luneckas.

The Bears took their first lead at 19-18 on a Sophia Nopoulos ace serve but Regina responded by scoring seven of the final eight points to win the opening set 25-20.

“We were able to do our runs of five, that has been a big thing for us,” Akers said. “We try to work on that and that is one of the things that has gone in our favor the last few matches.”

West Branch took a 17-15 lead in the second set but Regina again answered.

This time it was Evans that fueled an 8-0 run that turned the tide of the match.

Evans had four ace serves and her lone kill of the set during the 8-0 spurt that put Regina up 23-17.

“It was getting it in and placing it,” Evan said of her serving. “It wasn’t so much about the speed on it was more getting it in the right spot.”

Regina had nine ace serves in the win with all but one coming after the 15-point mark in a set.

“They aced us for some timely points in the match,” Walsh said. “I thought we battled them a heck of a lot better than we did the last time we played them but it just wasn’t enough tonight.”

Regina closed out the second set on an Ellie VanLandschoot kill.

The Regals then closed out the match by pulling away late in the third set.

Playing for the first time since Oct. 12, Regina got better the longer it played.

“I think our consistence became stronger and stronger the longer the match went,” Akers said. “We started off really strong and like all teams do we rollercoastered a little but then we found our comfort ground.”

Regina            25  25  25

West Branch  20  18  18

(Kills-aces-blocks)

West Branch

McKenna Walsh 4-0-0, Abbey Fryauf 13-0-0, Sophia Nopoulos 4-1-0, Riley Vaughan 1-2-0, Kaiya Luneckas 5-0-1, Mackenzie Heise 4-0-0, Team 31-3-1.

Assists – Riley Vaughan 12, Sophia Nopoulos 9.

Regina

Alex Wiese 10-0-1, Emily Bonnett 0-2-0, Ellie VanLandschoot 2-0-1, Alexa Lehman 2-0-0, Jaedynn Evans 7-4-1, Katrina Chambliss 2-3-1, Team 23-9-4.

Assists – Emily Bonnett 19.