Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The streak is intact and the Spike is staying at West High.

Senior Claire Overton pounded 10 kills and teammate Cailyn Morgan added nine as Class 5A No. 10 West High won the Battle of the Spike for the fourth consecutive season with a 25-15, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19 win over seventh-ranked City High on Tuesday in the season opener for both teams.  

“They were ranked above us so it feels great to come in here and upset them and I think this is going to help us grow as a team,” Overton said. “It’s great to start out like this it really gives us confidence.”

Overton and Morgan were the only West High returners to play in a three-set sweep of City High last season.

Those two seniors got plenty of help on Tuesday from a trio of West High players making their debuts in the cross-town rivalry.

Senior Haley Gallagher had five kills while fellow senior Emily Cray had four and junior setter Rylee Fay added four.

“I had two kids that played in it last year everybody else was new, even Rylee wasn’t in it last year so I didn’t know what I was going to walk into,” West High coach Scott Sanders said. “But they did alright.”

West High was more than alright on Tuesday as it extended its winning streak in all matches to eight over City High.

After City High tied the match at one set apiece, West High used a 7-1 run to take a 13-8 lead in the second set and never trailed again.

“It’s just a great feeling,” Fay said. “We are a whole new team so there was definitely doubts from other people that we weren’t going to come out this season and be strong but this is definitely going to help us move along this season.”

City High finished with a 37-35 advantage in kills thanks to a match-high 13 from senior Ellie Evans and 12 from junior Kelsey Law but couldn’t overcome 15 missed serves.

City High had at least three service errors in every set and had six in a 25-19 third-set loss.

“We really took ourselves out of a lot of opportunities to score points because we couldn’t hold our serves missing that many each set,” City High coach Tricia Carty said. “It was impossible to feel like we were in a flow because we were continually not able to put points together because we were serving out of bounds, in the net or the wrong person.”

While City High struggled to get into any kind of a rhythm West High settled in as the match went on.

City High got kills from Mia Loughran, Law and Evans during a 4-1 run that snapped a 21-all tie and secured a 25-22 win in the second set to even the match.

The Little Hawks led 7-6 early in the third set but it was all West High the rest of the way.

“I think every one of us was very nervous,” Fay said. “It’s just who comes out and gets the nerves out first will win the match and I think that’s what we did.”

West High used a 4-0 spurt that featured an Overton kill and a Grace Fleckenstein ace to take a 10-7 lead in the third set and never let City High get even the rest of the way.

The Women of Troy scored five of the final six points of the third set with an Overton kill putting the finishing touches on a 25-19 win.

“I think we got the nerves out during the first two sets,” Overton said. “We really picked up our serve receive and were running our offense and I think we just had less balls drop. Our defense was really great.”

West High bolted to a 4-0 lead in the fourth set and City High never got closer than two points the rest of the way.

Morgan had three kills in the final set and Overton capped the win with her 10th of the match.

“I think our serving game settled in and our passing game calmed down a lot,” Sanders said. “We talk a lot about finishing and they are starting to get that.”

West High had eight runs of four or more consecutive points in the match.

Meanwhile City High scored more than three consecutive points just one time, a four-point burst that put the Little Hawks up 4-1 in the second set.

“I think we showed glimmers of what we are capable of at different times,” Carty said. “Ellie and Kelsey on the outside both are really, really talented hitters we just have to be able to put all of our skills together more consistently.”

West High      25  22  25  25 

City High       15  25  19  19

West High

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Cailyn Morgan 9-1-1, Katherine Kouba 0-2-0, Rylee Fay 4-0-4, Grace Fleckenstein 0-3-0, Claire Overton 10-1-4, Emily Cray 4-0-3, Haley Gallagher 5-2-0, Ellie Kouba 3-0-0, Team 35-9-12

Assists – Rylee Fay 25, Haley Gallagher 1

City High

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Lindsey Bolton 0-3-0, Cecilia Aldrich-Ingram 2-0-1, Mackenzie Murphy 3-2-1, Joslyn Becker 2-0-2, Ellie Evans 13-0-0, Kelsey Law 12-0-0, Mia Loughran 5-0-0, Makayla Ribble 0-1-0, Team 37-6-4.

Assists – Lindsey Bolton 19, Makayla Ribble 12, Mackenzie Murphy 2