Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The consistency of senior hitter Annie Gahan makes Regina a potentially perilous opponent for any team it faces in the postseason.

When junior Lily Simpson gets rolling the way she was on Monday the Regals become a whole different type of dangerous.

Gahan had a match-high 11 kills and Simpson added nine to lift Regina to a 25-21, 25-18, 25-14 sweep of North Cedar (4-18) in its postseason opener on Monday.

“99 percent of the time you know what you are going to get out of Annie she is on almost every night but really we go the way of Lily,” Regina coach Brandon Mills said. “If she is on and swinging away and in the groove we can beat anybody in our class.”

Regina (13-9) overcame a slow start and some sloppy play early to advance to the Class 2A, Region 6 quarterfinals on Wednesday against No. 12 Waterloo Columbus (18-15)

The win was the 10^th in the past 12 matches for red-hot Regina which had a string of 17 consecutive set victories snapped last week with a loss to Anamosa.

“We have played better games than we did tonight but we are getting a lot better,” Simpson said. “We are playing together as a team a lot better.”

Gahan was her normal consistent self on Monday, posting at least three kills in every set and adding an ace serve and three ace blocks.

It was Simpson that helped jump start Regina early in the match.

Simpson had back-to-back kills to spark a 3-0 burst that helped Regina overcome a late 20-19 deficit in the opening set.

Regina then scored the final three points on kills from freshman setter Sydney Wagner and Sarah Martin and a Knight error.

“We started off really slow, it takes us a little to get going,” Simpson said. “We knew that we had to figure things out and we started to get going and work as a team more.”

Simpson had four kills in each of the first two sets and used her serving to help the Regals pull away in the second.

Regina led just 12-11 in the second set before a 6-1 burst helped the Regals get some separation.

It was just 20-18 Regina before the Regals scored the final five points behind the serving of Simpson, a run capped by a Simpson ace serve.

“I think we had some postseason jitters going tonight and we got those out of our system and we started to find our groove a little bit toward the end,” Mills said. “Hopefully we can find that groove on Wednesday and be clicking from the beginning.”

The third set was all Regina.

An early 6-1 run gave Regina a 6-2 cushion and North Cedar didn’t get closer than two points the rest of the way.

Gahan had three kills int eh third set as Regina completed the sweep.

“We start with a little low energy sometimes and so I think as the night goes on that energy kind of builds within team,” Gahan said. “We have to rely on each other to bring each other up.”
Regina will now turn its attention to Wednesday’s Regional quarterback with Waterloo Columbus which presents a tremendous opportunity for the Regals against a ranked opponent.

“It would be an absolutely great win for us, I’d take a win over anybody in that conference every team in that conference is ranked,” Mills said. “I know in my heart of hearts that if we bring the team that we are capable of being I know we can be right there. It’s a matter of putting it together starting tomorrow in practice.”

Regina                         25  25  25

North Cedar              21  18  14

Regina (Kills-aces-blocks)

Sydney Wagner 1-0-0, Sarah Martin 2-1-0, Lily Simpson 9-1-1, Alli Dillon 4-2-0, Lauren Sharpless 1-0-0, Annie Gahan 11-1-3, Hope Simpson 1-1-0, Team 29-6-4.

Assists – Sydney Wagner 7, Alli Dillon 5

North Cedar (Kills-aces-blocks)

Caitlin Jensen 6-0-1, Kelly Proesch 9-0-0, Kendall Smith 3-0-0, Averee Kasik 0-2-0, Aubrie Pruess 2-1-0, Jenna Syring 7-0-0, Team 27-3-1.

Assists – Averee Kasik 19, Maya Benhart 1

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