Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

The opening day of the state volleyball tournament is less than a week away.

Before the focus swings to Cedar Rapids and the quest for state titles the fields must be set.

By Wednesday evening all 40 spots at the state tournament will be filled.

Regional finals in Class 3A, 4A and 5A are Tuesday across the state with Class 1A and 2A completing regional play on Wednesday.

Here is a quick look at the regional finals featuring teams from the Your Prep Sports area.

Class 5A, Region 7

No. 14 Bettendorf (12-6) at No. 5 Liberty High (21-2)

Where: Liberty High

When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Player to Watch: Senior Annie Statler does a little bit of everything for Bettendorf and will need to be at her versatile best on Tuesday if the Bulldogs are to pull the upset.

Statler leads Bettendorf with 159 kills, 74 more than any other Bulldog, while hitting at a .211 clip.

The 5-foot-11 Statler also has 23 blocks, 100 digs and a team-leading 22 ace serves.

About the Lightning: Liberty High is seeking a second consecutive state tournament appearance and enters the regional final playing as well as any team in the state.

The Lightning bring a 13-match winning streak into Tuesday nights’ regional final, a stretch that includes wins over nine ranked teams.

Liberty High closed the regular season with back-to-back wins over defending 5A champion Cedar Falls and 4A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier and remained red-hot with a sweep of cross-town rival West High in the Region 7 semifinals.

The lone two losses for Liberty High have come to top-five ranked teams West Des Moines Dowling and West Des Moines Valley each in four sets on the road.

Liberty High is led by a pair of standout sophomore hitters in Cassidy Hartman and Shelby Kimm but the Lightning offense runs through senior setter Hailey Hested.

Hested has a team-high 352 assists while freshman setter Mariah Rollins has added 224 assists.

Hartman ranks fourth in 5A with 4.2 kills per set on her way to a team-high 241 kills while Kimm has added 148 kills.

Junior Sam Harvey has 98 kills while sophomores Kennedy Daugherty and Lilah VanScoyoc have 69 and 52 respectively.

About the Bulldogs: Bettendorf made four straight trips to the state tournament from 2012 to 2015, winning back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013 but hasn’t returned to state since.

The Bulldogs are hoping they are catching fire at the right time following an up and down season that featured a two-week shutdown in September.

Bettendorf opened the season 5-1 but a COVID-19 exposure forced the Bulldogs to pause their season for two weeks.

After going 16 days without competition Bettendorf lost three of its first five matches including setbacks to top-five opponents Davenport Assumption and Pleasant Valley.

The Bulldogs rebounded rather quickly winning six of eight to close the regular season and sweeping Cedar Rapids Kennedy 25-23, 25-22, 25-20 in the regional semifinals.

Stotlar has a team-high 159 kills to lead a balanced Bettendorf attack that features five players with at least 70 kills.

Junior Kaytlin Sowards has 85 kills, senior Grace Gasper 82 and senior Johnaizjha Angle and sophomore Lillie Petersen each have 71.

Petersen has a team-high 34 blocks and senior setter Ellie Aanestad runs the attack and has 364 assists.

What to Watch: Liberty High closed the regular season with an impressive sweep of 4A top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier.

The Lightning will attempt to cap a second straight unbeaten season at home with a second consecutive regional final win at home.

Last season the Lightning went 12-0 at home capped by a regional final sweep of Dubuque Hempstead.

Liberty High is a perfect 9-0 in home matches this season, including a perfect 22-0 in sets in its home gym, and hasn’t lost a match at home since October 9 of 2018.

Breakdown: Liberty High appears to be rolling toward a second consecutive state tournament appearance in its fourth season as a varsity program.

The Lightning haven’t lost since falling to fourth-ranked West Des Moines Valley on October 3 and have dropped just four sets during their current 13-match winning streak.

Hartman has been exceptional of late, averaging nearly 18 kills over the last three matches, a span that features contests against Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids Xavier and West High.

Class 2A, Region 8

No. 14 West Branch (20-12) at No. 2 Wilton (31-3)

Where: West Liberty

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Player to Watch: Wilton has a pair of standout hitters in juniors Kelsey Drake and Carly Puffer but junior setter Ella Caffery is the one that makes it all go for the Beavers.

A third-team all-state pick a year ago, the 5-foot-10 Caffery has a team-high 719 assists but does a little bit of everything for the Beavers ranking in the top five on the team in kills (117), digs (163), ace serves (47) and blocks (41).

About the Bears: West Branch ended the regular season with its toughest stretch of schedule all year, dropping five of its final seven matches with four of those losses coming to ranked teams.

The reward for those late-season challenges has come in the form of an impressive start to the postseason with the Bears dropping just one set in back-to-back regional wins over Mediapolis and Van Buren.

Junior Lexi Klinkkammer has been the center point of the Bear attack during regional play posting back-to-back double digit kill outings in postseason play.

Klinkkammer is averaging a team-high 4.6 kills per set during postseason play but has had plenty of help.

Senior Jaclyn Bloem has played perhaps the best volleyball of her career in her final postseason, hammering nine kills in a quarterfinal win over Mediapolis and a career-high 20 in a four-set semifinal win over Van Buren.

Bloem is hitting .354 on the season with 157 kills and will be a key in the middle for West Branch against Wilton.

About the Beavers: Wilton is seeking a third consecutive state tournament appearance and the Bears have a resume that can stack up with any team in Class 2A.
The Beavers hadn’t lost a set before falling to Class 5A fifth-ranked Liberty High on October 10 at the Cedar Rapids Prairie tournament and all three of their losses have come to top-10 teams from larger classes.

Wilton fell to 3A eighth-ranked West Liberty in three sets in the RVC conference finals to close the regular season but has responded consecutive impressive postseason sweeps.

Regional opponents Louisa-Muscatine and Columbus reached double digits in just two of six sets against Wilton in postseason play and the Beavers haven’t allowed more than 10 points in a single postseason set.

Caffery directs a potent Wilton attack that features one of the top hitting combinations in 2A with Puffer and Drake.

A third-team all-state last season Drake leads the team with 310 kills on .427 hitting while the 6-foot-1 Puffer has added 285 kills while hitting .422.

Junior Alexa Garvin has 119 kills giving the Beavers four players with triple digit kills in an offense that is hitting a Class 2A-best .306 on the season.

What to Watch: Serve receive is a key in any match but West Branch will need to be extra clean in that area against a Wilton squad that ranks among the most aggressive serving outfits anywhere.

Wilton leads Class 2A with 263 ace serves and has four players with more than 47 aces led by junior Peyton Souhrada who ranks third in 2A with 57.

The Beavers had six aces in a three-set sweep of West Branch during the regular season and six more in a two-set sweep at the Cedar Rapids Prairie tournament.

Breakdown: Regional meetings between these two River Valley Conference rivals have become regular of the past several seasons with Wilton knocking West Branch out of the playoffs each of the past two seasons.

Wilton won a five-set thriller over West Branch in the regional semifinals in 2018 and downed the Bears in four sets last season in a regional final.

West Branch gets another shot at its postseason nemesis on Wednesday as the two teams battle for a state tournament berth for the second year in a row.

Wilton won both regular season meetings between the two teams, earning a 25-16, 25-11, 25-19 win in a RVC South Division match on September 29.

The Beavers added a 21-17, 21-11 at the Prairie tournament on October 10.

Puffer and Drake combined for 28 kills in the regular season win over West Branch and Puffer had eight in the win at Prairie earlier this month.

A key for West Branch on Wednesday will be getting Klinkkammer going early.

The junior had four kills in the first meeting between the two teams and the Bears will likely need a big game for her on Wednesday along with continued strong play from Bloem in the middle.

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