Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – For a few moments early in its state tournament opener on Monday top-ranked Liberty High couldn’t help to think about last season.

The Lightning didn’t let those thoughts linger for long.

Top-ranked Liberty High rebounded from an opening set loss on its way to an emphatic 22-25, 25-20, 25-20, 25-17 win over No. 11 Urbandale in a Class 5A state quarterfinal at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

The win came after top-seeded Liberty High fell in the quarterfinals last season and sends the Lightning to the 5A semifinals for the second time in three seasons.

“Obviously all those thoughts come in,” Liberty High senior all-stater Cassidy Hartman said. “We just pushed them aside, we forgot the first set and we started over. We forgot about what happened the first set, what happened last year and we just played our game.”

Hartman had 16 of her team-high 21 kills over the final three sets as Liberty High (31-8) erased the early deficit and surged into the semifinals for the second time in program history.

Liberty High will face  sixth-ranked Ankeny Centennial on Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Ankeny Centennial defeated fourth-ranked West Des Moines Dowling in five sets in a quarterfinal on Monday.

“I think it was just getting our brain on this point and not anything that has happened in the past or anything that will happen in the future,” first-year Liberty High head coach Allie Kelly said. “Just resetting and trusting ourselves.”

Liberty High had three players in double figures in kills and finished with a 57-43 edge over Urbandale (16-20) in kills despite a match-high 25 from J-Hawk senior and 5A kill leader Lily Dykstra.

Shelby Kimm had 14 kills, Lilah VanScoyoc had 11 and junior Gracie Hennings added eight.

“It feels so good,” Hennings said. “It’s great to get this one out of the way and we are ready for next one.”

Playing the first ever state tournament match inside Xtream Arena there were some shaky moments early for the Lightning.

Urbandale used an 8-0 run that featured four Liberty High hitting errors and a pair of Lightning net violations to take a 10-4 lead in the opening set.

“We just had to get the jitters out, we have all this exciting and adrenaline in us and that caused some hitting errors and some mistakes that we normally don’t have,” VanScoyoc said. “That was the difficult part in the first set but once we were able to take a deep breath after and just know that we can play up to five we still have room to take the game.”

Liberty High pulled even at 16-all in the first set but a 4-1 Urbandale run that featured two kills and an ace block from Dykstra gave the J-Hawks a lead they would never give up.

The Lightning didn’t let the first-set loss linger.

“It was nerve wracking but as a team we knew we didn’t play our game,” Hennings said. “We play at a very high level and we knew that we would get back to that by lifting each other up and supporting each other.”

Liberty High answered quickly with a second-set win in which it seized control with a 6-0 spurt that gave the Lightning a 22-14 lead.

The Lightning closed the third set on a 6-2 run to take a two set to one lead in the match and dominated the fourth set from the opening serve.

“We started getting our ball control better,” Hartman said. “The first set we weren’t bettering the ball at all and when we started focusing on bettering the ball and not focusing on getting a kill but just getting the ball over the net it helped us play our game.”

Liberty High scored the fist five points of the fourth set and never trailed putting the set and the match away with a 5-0 run that pushed the lead to 22-13.

“I feel good, I think they are ready for what comes next and I am happy for the girls and happy that they get to keep going,” Kelly said. “These seniors are pretty special for us so I’m glad that we get to play one more with them.”

Hartman led the way finishing with 21 kills and a team-high 22 digs.

Kimm had 14 kills and 11 digs while senior libero Isabelle Mehmen had 22 digs and sophomore Asta Hildebrand had 29 assists.

“It feels great,” Hartman said. “Any win at state is a great accomplishment so this is a good feeling and I’m happy to do it with this team.”

Liberty High              22  25  25  15

Urbandale                  25  20  20  17 

Liberty High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Gracie Hennings 8-0-2, Lauren Ramspott 0-1-0; Shelby Kimm 14-1-0, Isabelle Mehmen 0-2-0, Asta Hildebrand 2-1-0, Cassidy Hartman 21-0-0, Lilah VanScoyoc 11-1-1, Totals 57-6-4.

Assists – Asta Hildebrand 29, Mariah Rollins 18, Isabelle Mehmen 2, Cassidy Hartman 1, Lilah VanScoyoc 1

Urbandale (Kills-aces-blocks)

Camryn Boik 3-0-3, Elizabeth Mitchell 0-2-0, Lainey Drown 2-0-1, Kendra Pippett 0-0-6, Lily Dykstra 25-0-5, Dennan Rew 1-2-6, Lauren Nepper 11-0-4, Courtney Dunn 1-0-0, Totals 43-4, 24.

Assists – Kate Hinkhouse 18, Lainey Drown 18, Tori Noah 5, Lily Dykstra 1

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