Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Exactly what type of potential does the West Branch volleyball squad have this season?

A runner-up finish at Saturday’s season-opening home tournament for the Bears offered at least a partial to that all-important question.

“The sky is the limit honestly,” West Branch senior Lexi Klinkkammer said. “We have a ton of weapons this year.”
West Branch showed on Saturday it does indeed possess the weapons and the talent to back up its lofty expectations.

The key for the Bears in reaching those goals will be putting it all together.

West Branch went 4-1 in its first action of the season Saturday falling to Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont 25-16, 21-25, 15-11 in the title match of its own tournament that was moved to Regina as West Branch awaits the completion of construction on its new gymnasium.

“I think the ceiling is very high,” second-year head coach Trystin Shawver said. “We have a really good base and foundation and now it’s just how can we fit the pieces of the puzzle together to max out our talent.”

West Branch rolled through pool play Saturday with sweeps of Wapello (21-11, 21-15) and Prince of Peace (21-10, 21-13) and a 18-21, 21-5, 15-11 win over Winfield-Mount Union.

The Bears swept Class 1A third-ranked New London in straight sets in the semifinals.

“I am very happy with how we played,” Klinkkammer said. “I thought we did a lot of good things. Things we can build on.”

When talking about the weapons on the 2021 West Branch squad Klinkkammer comes up early in the conversation.

A four-year starter the senior had a team-high 11 kills in the three-set loss to Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont in the title match.

Saturday was all about finding where all the pieces fit around their senior stalwart.

“We have a lot of girls that are very versatile and can play a lot of different positions so its just kind of finding what works best for us right now,” Klinkkammer said. “Most the lineups we ran today we haven’t even ran in practice. It was just awesome to see girls winning to play different positions.”

After dropping the opening set of the title match 25-16 West Branch showed it vast potential in the second set.

The Bears trailed just one at 12-11 and took control of the set with a 5-0 spurt that featured kills from senior middle Delanie Luneckas and sophomore Jalynn Falco and gave the Bears a 19-14 cushion.

Iva Senio and setter Kylie Pickett had kills in a 4-1 burst that gave West Branch a 24-17 lead.

“We’ve talked a lot about energy,” Klinkkammer said. “If our energy is up and we are basically screaming on the court we are a lot better. We do that in practice and if we can transfer that to games it will help us a lot.”

West Branch led 5-2 early in the third set but Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (9-0) scored 12 of the next 14 points.

6-foot freshman Molly Shafer had three of her match-high 18 kills during the 12-2 burst and added an ace serve and a block as the Rockets took a 14-7 lead.

“Consistency is the key, keeping their runs short and making our runs long, that’s really what its all about and then when they do make a run how do we respond,” Shawver said. “They had really good athletes, their outside was really good and she is going to get kills, teams are going to get kills but we have to respond in a way that is positive.”

Regina went 3-2 on Saturday on its home court finishing the day with consecutive wins over Don Bosco and Prince of Peace in the consolation bracket to finish fifth.

“We had no idea what to expect today so we tried a bunch of stuff out,” Regina co-head coach Brandon Mills said. “We learned quite a bit today but we still have some things to figure out.”

The Regals defeated New London 15-21, 21-19, 15-10 in their opener and fell to Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont 21-14, 25-23 and Don Bosco 21-15, 20-22, 15-10 in pool play.

“Win, lose or draw today I really don’t care but we are going to figure out what our personality is and can we figure out how to win,” Mills said. “We learned some great lessons today and I think that is what was great about today.”

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