Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Of the three consecutive regional final victories for Liberty High the sweep of Muscatine on Tuesday was the most expected.

Defending 5A runner-up and top-ranked Liberty High secured a third consecutive trip to the state tournament with a 25-10, 25-6, 25-11 win over the Muskies in the Region 6 title game at Liberty High.

More anticipated? Yes.

Less exciting? No way.

“Coach (Randy) Dolson and I were talking about this I think that you could get banners 100 times and it’s always going to be exciting,” Liberty High co-head coach Allie Kelly said. “It’s always a big accomplishment, it’s always something that we appreciate and so I think it will never get old for these girls no matter what.”

Cassidy Hartman had a match-high 10 kills to lead seven different Liberty High players with at least three kills as the Lightning stretched its winning streak to 11.

Liberty High (34-4) hasn’t lost a set during its current winning streak that dates back to October 5.

“It never gets old because it’s just that feeling of all your goals getting accomplished,” Hartman said. “You feel like everything you have worked for is getting done and a huge step toward our end goal to win state.”

Liberty High was expected to take care of business against Muscatine (15-18) on Tuesday and was sharp from the outset.

The Lightning trailed just once in the match, at 1-0 in the third set, and finished with a 34-17 edge in kills and had 12 ace serves.

“I thought we played really well,” Hartman said. “We kept our intensity up the whole game which is what we’ve been trying to do. We want to keep that same level of play the entire game and I think we did a really good job of that.”

Liberty High had two 4-0 runs in a 25-10 win in the opening set and used a 12-0 burst to burst open the second set on its way to a 25-6 win.

The Lightning didn’t allow Muscatine to score consecutive points in either of the first two sets.

“We focused a lot on passing and defensive integrity and I thought that our girls did a really good job tonight on hard driven balls on tips and rolls they were after every single ball,” Kelly said. “They were fighting hard for every single point there were no points that they took off and that’s what you want to see no matter what match you are playing that they are playing at that same level.”

Muscatine took its only lead of the match on an Annie Zillig kill to open the third set but Liberty High scored the next four points two coming on Shelby Kimm ace serves.

Kimm finished with five kills and four ace serves while Grace Hennings had four kills and Nessa Hardaway, Asta Hildebrand, Sam Harvey and Lilah VanScoyoc all had three kills.

“We’ve been working really hard at practice in reducing our errors and our goal for state is to not get down any point and that started here,” Harvey said. “We are going to keep working on staying consistent and just giving ever thing we’ve got. We respect every opponent we play and we want to give every opponent our all.”

Liberty High will face Johnston (27-11) in a Class 5A state quarterfinal on Monday at Noon at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids.

“It always feels really good, that green banner is special and something that we really, really appreciate,” Kelly said. “It’s one big milestone and now we have to focus on the next.”

Liberty High              25  25  25

Muscatine                  10   6   11

Liberty High (kills-aces-blocks)

Nessa Hardaway 3-0-0, Gracie Hennings 4-0-0, Shelby Kimm 5-4-0, Asta Hildebrand 3-0-1, Ava Meyer 1-0-0, Gabbie Schroeder 0-2-0, Carlie Schroeder 0-3-0, Chante Hardaway 1-0-0, Cassidy Hartman 10-2-1, Lilah VanScoyoc 3-0-2, Mariah Rollins 1-0-0, Olivia Davenport 0-1-0, Totals 34-12-5

Assists – Mariah Rollins 14, Asta Hildebrand 11

Muscatine (kills-aces-blocks)

Bree Seaman 3-0-0, Ashlyn McGinnis 2-0-0, Kyleia Salyars 1-0-0, Annie Zillig 6-0-0, Hannah Jansen 2-0-0, Meadow Freers 3-0-1, Totals 17-0-1.

Assists – Ashlyn McGinnis 12

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