Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – Jordyn Akers did everything she could think of to prepare her team for the front-line height of Western Christian.

Akers set up extra blocking drills, she stood on top of boxes to toss balls at defenders and she even took a turn or two hitting balls herself.

Try as she might the 5-foot-6 Akers couldn’t simulate the length of reach of the Wolfpack.

Ashtyn Veerbeek had 20 kills and Jessie De Jager added 15 to lead two-time defending champion Western Christian to a 25-10, 25-20, 25-12 sweep of No. 11 Regina in the quarterfinals of the Class 2A state tournament on Wednesday at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.

“Our coaches tried to prepare us, they hit at us a lot but that’s not anywhere close to what we faced today,” Regina junior Jaedynn Evans said. “We haven’t seen anyone with big hitters like that, we’ve seen some really good hitters but they just overpower anything else that we have seen.”

Behind the 6-foot-2 Veerbeek and 6-foot-1 De Jager the Wolfpack controlled the action at the net finishing with a 42-18 edge in kills.

Regina mustered just one block as Western Christian hit .330 as a team with Veerbeek hitting .485 and De Jager a match-best .500.

“We throw up different blocking things to help simulate a big block but you can only do so much,” Akers said. “We try but you can’t simulate what their size is able to do.”

Second-ranked Western Christian (38-6) advances to the state semifinals for the 17th consecutive season with the win and will face No. 3 Grundy Center (37-6) on Thursday at 4 p.m.

“It’s just an awesome feeling,” Veerbeek said. “Some teams don’t know what it’s like coming here but we do and it makes us work so much harder to get here every time.”

Western Christian scored 14 of the final 18 points in the opening set on its way to a 25-10 win.

Veerbeek had nine of her match-high 20 kills in the opening set and the Wolfpack had five of its 12 ace serves in the opener.

“It was just a lot of factors I think,” Regina junior Alex Wiese said. “We had never been here before that was a factor, we had a lot nerves. I don’t want to make excuses but I don’t know if we were 100 percent ready.”

Regina battled back in the second set.

The Regals had a chance to even the match at one set each leading 16-14 but Western Christian ended on a 5-1 run that featured two kills by Veerbeek.

“We played well the second set, there were a couple of little things that got us. The little things added up but I can’t be disappointed with how they played, they played really well.”

Western Christian scored the first four points of the third set and never trailed.

Regina scored more than two points in a row just once, a 6-0 run midway through the second set.

“We watched a lot of tape on them and we knew their outsides would be really tough,” Veerbeek said. “We knew if we served tough and got them out of system that would benefit us and that’s what we did.”

Wiese and Evans each had seven kills to lead Regina while Alexa Lehman had three kills.

Both Evans and Wiese return next season along with junior Ellie VanLandschoot.

“There is a lot to look forward to for sure, we are 100 percent ready,” Evans said. “Looking at the underclassmen I think we have a lot of potential coming up.” 

Akers intends to make the state tournament experience a building block for a Regina program which was making its third ever trip to state and first since 2013.

“It’s a great starting point for us to build on,” Akers said. “I want to start being those teams that come year after year after year and this is how you have to start that.”

Western Christian    25  25  25

Regina                     10  20  12

(Kills-ace-blocks)

Western Christian

Jessi De Jager 15-0-1, Olivia Granstra 0-2-0, Madison Hofman 3-1-0, Tori Wynja 3-2-0, Chandler Schemper 0-0-0, Ashtyn Veerbeek 20-0-2, Emma Bousema 0-3-0, Madison Byl 0-0-0, Cori De Jong 1-0-1, Avery Van Kley 0-2-0, Team 42-12-4.

Assists – Emily Bonnett 12, Clare Dunne 3, Katrina Chambliss 2

Regina

Alex Wiese 7-0-1, Emily Bonnett 0-0-0, Ellie VanLandschoot 1-0-1, Alexa Lehman 3-0-0, Jaedynn Evans 7-2-0, Katrina Chambliss 0-1-0, Clare Dunne 0-0-0, Team 18-3-2.

Assists – Olivia Granstra 28, Tori Wynja 8.