Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CEDAR RAPIDS – In a 36-year coaching career that has included 12 trips to the state tournament Liberty High coach Randy Dolson has been an underdog a time or two.

Dolson expected eighth-seeded Johnston to bring a ‘nothing to lose’ attitude to Monday’s Class 5A state quarterfinal on Monday.

Johnston brought that attitude and the execution to go with it.

No. 10 Johnston rallied from a 24-22 deficit in the fourth set and 12-10 hole in the fifth to stun top-ranked Liberty High 25-21, 17-25, 17-25, 26-24, 16-14 at the Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids.

“They brought it, I think their mentality was ‘we’ve got nothing to lose’ and I would have taken that mentality too,” Dolson said. “They were swinging out of their hips and they got us.”

Johnston (28-11) will face fourth-ranked Cedar Falls (32-8) in the 5A semifinals on Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Cedar Falls swept fifth-ranked West Des Moines Dowling in a quarterfinal on Monday afternoon.

The 2020 5A runner-up, Liberty High had an 11-match winning streak snapped with the loss and closes the season 34-5.

“Commend Johnston on a good game plan,” Liberty High co-head coach Allie Kelly said. “We told our girls hopefully this will put a chip on their shoulders and we can learn from it. We talk about being a young program and every year is a learning experience at the state tournament and I don’t think this was the new experience we were seeking this year but hopefully it puts that chip on their shoulder and we can move forward.”

Liberty High got a match-high 32 kills from junior Cassidy Hartman but couldn’t close out the Dragons who were making their first trip to state since 2015.

Johnston scored the final four points of the fourth set and four of the final five in the fifth to advance to the 5A semifinals for the first time since 2014.

“I feel like we were playing really tense,” Hartman said. “I feel like instead of us putting the pressure on them we were just waiting back and waiting for them to make the errors instead of us attacking.”

Johnston started the match with a bang scoring the first three points of the opening set and never trailing in a 25-21.

Liberty High responded with back-to-back impressive 25-17 wins to seemingly take control of the match.

“The first set was kind of a wake up call,” Liberty High junior Shelby Kimm said. “We came out the second and third a lot more relaxed and we were just having fun and going out there to hit the ball.”

Liberty High appeared poised to return to the state semifinals a 4-0 burst that started with kills by Hartman and Kimm gave Liberty High a 23-20 lead.

Johnston closed the lead to 23-22 on a Molly Trachta ace but a Hartman kill gave Liberty High set point at 24-22.

The Dragons fought of two set points and then secured the win on a Josie Pundt kill and a Ava Helming ace block.

“I thought we played tight and we haven’t played like that in a while,” Dolson said. “It’s a big stage, there is no doubt about it but give credit to Johnston for putting pressure on us.”

The fifth set was back-and-forth throughout but Liberty High appeared to take control with a 3-0 burst that gave the Lightning a 12-10 lead.

It was 14-14 after a Lilah VanScoyoc kill but Johnston again scored the final two points on a Helming kill and an ace block from senior middle Maren Rasmussen.

Helming led three Johnston players with at least 12 kills with 18 while senior Dasha Svitashev had 16 and Pundt had 12.

The Dragons finished with 18 blocks led by Helming with 6 and Mia Anderson with 5.

“To me it’s always pass and serve, starting with the serve they took us out of our offense a little bit and we couldn’t get a lot of big swings, we got some but not enough,” Dolson said. “They outswung us so we played a lot of defense and that puts a lot of pressure on a team. The more pressure you put on it’s tough to handle.”

Liberty High              21  25  25  24  14

Johnston                    25  17  17  26  16

Liberty High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Shelby Kimm 14-2-0, Asta Hildebrand 0-2-1, Sam Harvey 5-0-1, Chante Hardaway 4-0-2, Cassidy Hartman 32-1-0, Mariah Rollins 3-0-0, Lilah VanScoyoc 8-0-1, Totals 66-7-5.

Assists – Mariah Rollins 31, Asta Hildebrand 26, Gabbie Schroeder 4, Carlie Schroeder 1

Johnston (Kills-aces-blocks)

Mia Anderson 2-0-5, Dasha Svitashev 16-4-1, Ava Helming 18-0-6, Josie Pundt 12-0-0, Maren Rasmussen 8-1-3, Molly Trachta 1-3-2, Ella Smithson 1-0-0, Maeve Rehmann 2-0-1, Totals 60-8-18.

Assists – Molly Trachta 54, Dasha Svitashev 2

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