Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – As Randy Dolson reflected on an unusual regular season following a regional final win over Bettendorf the veteran Liberty High coach acknowledged his team had seen everything this fall.

Or almost everything.

“I think the only thing we haven’t had is a five-set match,” Dolson said last week.

Liberty High still hasn’t had a match reach five sets this season the Lightning made sure of that on Monday.

Fifth-ranked Liberty High rallied from a 20-13 fourth-set deficit to finish off a 25-20, 20-25, 25-17, 26-24 win over fourth-ranked West Des Moines Valley (19-7) in a Class 5A state quarterfinal at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids.

“It was two even teams and it could have gone either way,” Dolson said. “If that would have went to a fifth set I think it would have been a nail biter probably a 16-14 game so we were happy to take care of it in the fourth.”

Liberty high (23-2) stretched its winning streak to 15 and avenged a four-set loss to the Tigers last month with its first ever state tournament victory on Monday.

The historic win came after Liberty High fell to Pleasant Valley in its first ever appearance at the state meet a year ago and sets up a meeting with top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling (22-2) in the 5A semifinals on Wednesday at 10 a.m.

“It’s really rewarding just to see how we really started from the bottom and we’ve gotten all the way here,” Liberty High senior libero Addie Schmierer said. “Last year we didn’t get what we wanted and this year we wanted even more and weren’t going to give up on that.”

Liberty High used its late surge in the fourth set to avoid a winner-take-all fifth set on Monday.

Trailing 20-13 the Lightning rattled off three consecutive points but still trailed 22-17 after Nebraska recruit Hayden Kubik hammered her match-high 25^th kill.

Liberty High responded with a 7-0 burst that started with a Cassidy Hartman kill and featured a big ace block by Lauren Roman and a Carlie Schroeder ace serve.

“We have really good team chemistry and that helps us not only rely on each other and trust each other but pull each other out of holes,” Roman said. “We’ve done that in previous games and we have a lot of trust and team chemistry on this team and that helps us pull through anything.”

West Des Moines Valley had set point at 24-23 but a Roman ace block on Kubik tied the set at 24.

“Our focus in practice was really working on my block especially, that’s a vital part of being a middle and I went in with the mentality to block the ball and focus on my form,” Roman said. “I just really wanted to be aggressive and go out with a bang in a way.”

Liberty High then put the match away on back-to-back ace serves by Schmierer.

“I don’t think my heart has ever pounded that much before,” Schmierer said. “I just had to take a deep breath to calm down everything. I just had to take my time and get it in because I knew my team was going to back me up if I got it in.”

Hartman had nine of her team-high 17 kills as the two teams split a pair of 25-20 sets to open the match.

In the final two sets Hartman had plenty of help at the net as Kennedy Daugherty had six of her eight kills in the final two sets and Sam Harvey had four of her six kills in the final two sets.

“We were just thinking play our game, we know that we can do it, we had confidence that we could do it we just had to settle down,” Hartman said. “I remember last year we had a lot of nerves going into it and this year we just went in and played our game.

Sophomore Shelby Kimm added seven kills and Lilah VanScoyoc had three while Roman finished with seven blocks.

Liberty High will attempt to reach the 5A title game when it takes on top-ranked Dowling on Wednesday.

“I am just so excited for us,” Roman said. “I’m excited to be able to leave a legacy at Liberty.”

Liberty High                              25  20  25  26

West Des Moines Valley       20  25  17  24

Liberty High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Lauren Roman 0-0-7, Shelby Kimm 7-1-3, Sam Harvey 6-0-2, Hailey Hested 0-0-2, Gabbie Schroeder 0-2-0, Cassidy Hartman 17-1-2, Addie Schmierer 0-2-0, Carlie Schroeder 0-2-0, Lilah VanScoyoc 3-0-2, Mariah Rollins 0-0-0, Team 41-8-19.

Assists – Hailey Hested 19, Mariah Rollins 17, Addie Schmierer 3

West Des Moines Valley (Kills-aces-blocks)

Payton Lombardi 3-2-0, Brenna Gion 5-0-1, Hayden Kubik 25-1-1, Anna Bernhard 11-0-4, Jenna Herting 4-0-4, Olivia Lombardi 1-1-0, Carley Motz 1-0-0, Gabby Lombardi 6-0-1, Team 56-4-11.
Assists – Katie Stevens 25, Ellie Morros 18, Olivia Lombardi 4, Payton Lombardi 3, Brenna Gion 1

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