Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – There was some debate following Clear Creek Amana’s quarterfinal upset of third-ranked Marion as to the biggest victory in program history.

The Clippers put that discussion to rest on Wednesday.

After semifinal exits in its previous two state tournament appearances Clear Creek Amana advanced to the state title game for the first time in program history on Wednesday with a 25-22, 22-25, 18-25, 25-18, 15-6 win over second-ranked North Scott at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“I can’t describe it,” Clear Creek Amana junior Meg Berkland said. “This is amazing. It feels so great you can’t describe it.”

It was the second straight come-from-behind win over top-three ranked opponents for the Clippers who will face top-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier (32-4) in the 4A title game on Thursday at 12:15 p.m.

In consecutive state tournament matches eighth-ranked Clear Creek Amana (34-10) has rallied from two sets to one deficits to defeat Marion and North Scott, two teams that handed the Clippers straight set defeats during the regular season.

“I think that’s what motivates them is they know that they have nothing to lose and we are going to prove to you if you are going to doubt us we are coming back at you,” Clear Creek Amana coach Jackie Clubb said. “They are a great group of kids and don’t give up.”

Junior Bliss Beck had a monster performance with a match-high 19 kills and 12 blocks as the combination of a strong block and a scrappy back row led by Berkland helped Clear Creek Amana frustrate a powerful North Scott attack.

Berkland had a match-high 38 digs and the Clippers finished with a 28-13 edge in total blocks.

“We knew we needed to make some adjustments in serve receive to get the ball where we needed to and they did such a great job,” Clubb said. “We have the ability to make fixes early and keep doing and I am just so proud of them.”

Unlike its quarterfinal win over Marion the Clippers got off to a strong start on Wednesday winning the opening set 25-22.

North Scott responded with back-to-back victories 25-22 in the second and 25-18 in the third to seemingly take control.

The message between sets for Clear Creek Amana was simple.

“We said, ‘we’ve  been here before’,” Berkland said. “We knew we could do what we did on Monday.”

Just as they did on Monday against Marion the Clippers came fighting back.

“We all came together and decided we weren’t ready to be done playing with each other yet,” Clear Creek Amana junior Addison Gisleson said. “We wanted one more game so we were going to do everything we could to keep it going.”

Clear Creek Amana won the fourth set 25-18 to force a decisive fifth.

It was all Beck and Clippers from the opening serve.

Beck had four kills and three blocks during a 10-0 Clear Creek Amana run to open the fifth set.

“It was strictly adrenaline,” Beck said. “I wanted to win so bad and I think everyone else on the team did as well.”

Beck started the 10-0 run with a kill and following a North Scott hitting error posted an ace block and a kill to make it 4-0.

After another Lancer error made it 5-0 Beck scored the next four points to give Clear Creek Amana a 9-0 lead.

An ace serve by Gisleson made it 10-0 and forced North Scott to use its final timeout.

“It’s really important to get the momentum early on in the fifth set,” Gisleson said. “Once we got that momentum it just kept rolling.”

Clear Creek Amana had not played a five-set match all season prior to Monday.

In two games at state the Clippers have outscored a pair of top-three ranked teams that combined for 68 wins this season 30-14 in the fifth set of wins.

“It’s crazy being able to keep the energy our team has had for the four and five set matches,” Gisleson said. “We all hype each other up and keep each other going.”

Abbey Hayes had 13 kills to lead North Scott while Kaci Johnson added 12 kills.

The Lancers finished with a 50-41 edge in kills but hit .022 compared to .079 for Clear Creek Amana which also had the edge in blocks.

Clear Creek Amana              25  22  18  25  15

North Scott                            22  25  25  18   6

Clear Creek Amana (Kills-aces-blocks)

Ashlyn Pitcher 2-0-2, Meg Berkland 0-0-0, Bliss Beck 19-0-12, Emily Henderson 1-0-0, Kenadi Wood 0-0-0, Silvana Kabolo 4-0-3, Sam Schrage 3-1-4, Addison Gisleson 5-3-2, Averie Lower 7-1-5, Totals 41-5-28.

Assists – Emily Henderson 18, Kenadi Wood 13, Meg Berkland 3, Ashly Pitcher 1, Bliss Beck 1, Averie Lower 1

North Scott (Kills-aces-blocks)

Abbey Hayes 13-1-1, Kaci Johnson 12-0-3, Ella Kuesel 0-2-0, Emma Schermerhorn 2-0-0, Lauren Golinghorst 8-0-3, Nora Ralfs 0-4-0, Sydney Skarich 10-1-2, Emee Allard 1-0-1, Shelby Spears 4-0-5, Totals 50-8-15.

Assists – Nora Ralfs 19, Emma Schermerhorn 18, Ella Kuesel 2, Carley Bredar 2, Kaci Johnson 1

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