Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Liberty High has plenty of offensive firepower with all-state hitters Cassidy Hartman and Shelby Kimm on the outside.

On Tuesday it was senior middle Sam Harvey that sparked the Lightning.

Harvey ignited a late Liberty High charge with five third-set kills as the top-ranked Lightning surged past ninth-ranked Cedar Falls 25-22, 21-25, 25-12, 25-15 in a meeting of Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division unbeatens in North Liberty.

“I was super heated after losing (the second set) and I play with a lot of adrenaline, I play with a lot of anger and passion,” Harvey said. “We had a talk out there as a team and we just talked about not giving up and just fighting for each other and I just used my adrenaline to push me.”

Hartman had a match-high 21 kills and Kimm added 13 as Liberty High improved to 17-3 on the season with its eighth consecutive win.

However, it was the senior sparkplug Harvey that got Liberty High going late on Tuesday helping the Lighting take sole possession of first place in the Mississippi Division at 5-0.

“We really wanted this win,” Harvey said. “This is pretty much the match for who is going to win the conference.”

Liberty High never trailed in a 25-22 win in the opening set and led 19-18 late in the second before Cedar Falls (15-5, 4-1) rattled off six consecutive points.

Katie Remmert had six of her team-high 17 kills in the second set, including the set-clincher as Cedar Falls evened the match at one set apiece.

For Harvey and the Lightning the second-set loss turned out to be a wakeup call.

“Sometimes being the number one ranked team you think you’ve always got it and sometimes a loss like that needs to happen,” Harvey said.  “I feel like that game two showed us we had to go and that pushed us and I think we had two of our best games to end it.”

Liberty High jumped to a 5-2 lead in the third set and Harvey helped make sure the Tigers never threatened.

Harvey had five kills in the 25-12 third-set win and had two kills and an ace block during a 7-1 Liberty High run to close out the set.

“Sam gives us the most positive bubbly energy,” Liberty High co-head coach Allie Kelly said. “She is that constant positive force. We could be down by 20 points and she’d be saying ‘we’ve got this, we can do it’. She really is that person that everyone can look to even when things are down and her face is smiling and she as an optimistic outlook on the game.”

Harvey added two kills in a 25-15 win in the fourth set and finished with nine kills and a team-high four ace blocks.

“She is really coming into things as a middle,” Kelly said. “We still have some things to work on blocking wise and timing wise with her hitting but the more that she plays in it the more confidence she builds and it’s starting to show for sure.”

Liberty High trailed 11-10 in the fourth set but put the match away with a 7-0 run that gave the Lightning a 21-13 cushion.

Harvey started the spurt with a kill and Hartman had three kills during the burst.

“Toward the end we picked up our energy a lot and our defense really started to come together which helped with our offense,” Hartman said. “We started swinging away and when we are able to be in system we put the ball away almost every time.”

After being limited to three kills in the second set Hartman had five in the third set and six in the fourth.

“I feel like I was really seeing the court well,” Hartman said. “My line shot was working pretty well and everything was connecting as a team and that really helped me.”
Kimm added 13 kills while freshman Asta Hildebrand had seven and Lilah VanScoyoc each had seven.

Summer Halsor had 12 kills for Cedar Falls.

“I think that we are a team that needs to feel things click,” Kelly said. “We mix up lineups a little bit we have some girls down with injuries and we have to figure some things out but once we get into that rhythm and once we start to feel that momentum they really ride that wave of each other’s energy and can realty spread those points.”

Liberty High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Shelby Kimm 13-0-0, Asta Hildebrand 7-0-0, Sam Harvey 9-0-4, Sydney Stratton 0-0-1, Gabbie Schroeder 0-2-0, Carlie Schroeder 0-1-0, Cassidy Harman 21-0-0, Lilah VanScoyoc 7-0-0, Ava Meyer 0-0-1, Nessa Hardaway 1-0-0, Totals 58-3-6.

Assists – Mariah Rollins 31, Asta Hildebrand 19

Cedar Falls (Kills-aces-blocks)

Summer Halsor 12-0-0, Nohea Mahi 0-2-0, Ellie Gerdes 2-0-0, Grace Hannam 2-0-0, Olivia Smothers 7-0-2, Olivia Blake 0-1-0, Katie Remmert 17-0-5, Totals 40-3-7.

Assists – Nohea Mahi 35, Lani Nielsen 1

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