Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – Liberty High made amends for an opening-round exit from the state tournament last season with a quarterfinal win on Monday.

With a 25-21, 25-19, 18-25, 25-22 semifinal win over sixth-ranked Ankeny Centennial on Wednesday the Lightning earned a shot to settle another score.

Senior Cassidy Hartman pounded a match-high 22 kills in the four-set win over Ankeny Centennial at Xtream Arena in Coralville as Liberty High returned to the 5A title match for the second time in three seasons.

“Since freshman year we’ve wanted this,” Hartman said. “We might as well win it now.”

The 5A runner-up in 2020, Liberty High (32-8) will face third-ranked and defending state champion Pleasant Valley in the 5A championship Thursday at 10 a.m.

Seniors Shelby Kimm and Lilah VanScoyoc added 11 and 10 kills for the Lightning as seniors accounted for 43 of the 53 Liberty High kills in the semifinal win.

“It feels great and we’ve gotten this far we might as well go out with a win,” Kimm said. “I’ve been looking forward to the state championship because I want it so bad and it’s my last year.”

After dropping the opening set in a quarterfinal win over Urbandale on Monday Liberty High was sharp early against the Jaguars.

Liberty High erased an 18-15 deficit with a 10-3 run to close out a 25-21 in the first set.

“We really talked about playing our game and getting on them right away,” Hartman said. “Those extra points that we get in the beginning really help us in the end so we talked about that and we also knew that we had to do our thing the whole time.”

Liberty High used a strong finish in the second set to take control of the match.

Trailing 17-15 the Lightning scored 10 of the final 12 points in a 25-19 win.

“Our passes were higher today which allowed Mariah (Rollins) and I to move the sets around a little more,” Liberty High sophomore Asta Hildebrand said. “That opened up more spots on the court.”

Ankeny Centennial used a 7-0 run to take control of the third set on its way to a 25-18 win but Liberty High didn’t blink.

The Lightning used an 8-1 run to take a 21-15 win in the fourth set and held on for a 25-22 win.

“I thought early on we served and passed much better, we got a little shaky with that in set three and that’s where you saw a little slippage but I think coming back into the same venue helped,” Liberty High coach Allie Kelly said. “They were a little more settled in and I think our seniors sort of pulled our team through.”

Ankeny Centennial cut a 24-18 Liberty High lead in the fourth set to 24-22 with four consecutive points.

After a timeout Liberty High secured the win on a Jaguar hitting error.

“We knew that we were overlooking it a little bit,” Hartman said of the final point. “We just had to play our game, we had it, we had the confidence we could do it we just had to play our game and be relaxed.”

Liberty High finished with a 53-40 edge in kills over Ankeny Centennial hitting .152 compared to .109 for the Jaguars.

Hildebrand added seven kills to go with a team-high 31 assists.

“I felt like the nerves were kind of gone with yesterday’s game,” Hildebrand said. “We talked about just focusing on our game and what we can control and we did what we needed.”

Hartman had a team-high 15 digs for Liberty High while Isabelle Mehmen and Kimm each had 14.

“I’m just relieved because we won the first two matches that we needed to and now we are in the state championship,” Kimm said. “It will be nice to get redemption from the past years.”

For seniors Kimm and Hartman the 5A title game on Friday will be their eighth state tournament match.

Both were key players on the Liberty High team that fell to Ankeny in the 2020 championship match.

“I think they’ve proven everything that they needed to themselves,” Kelly said. “Every doubt that they have had, every insecurity regarding last year or whatever it is they have settled the score. I think they can play free and come in ready to play.”

Liberty High                           25  25  18  25

Ankeny Centennial               21  19  25  22

Liberty High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Gracie Hennings 2-0-1, Lauren Ramspott 1-0-2, Shelby Kimm 11-1-2, Asta Hildebrand 7-4-1, Cassidy Hartman 22-2-0, Lilah VanScoyoc 10-1-0, Totals 53-8-7.

Assists – Asta Hildebrand 31, Mariah Rollins 14, Isabelle Mehmen 2, Lauren Ramspott 1, Shelby Kimm 1, Cassidy Hartman 1

Ankeny Centennial (Kills-aces-blocks)

Mya Lei-Butter 0-1-0, Jada Schmidt 2-0-0, Delainey Winkel 7-3-0, Jaeden Pratt 10-0-3, Anna Sash 5-0-3, Kambria Leazer 1-0-2, Reagan Angus 4-0-0, Delaney Miller 7-3-2, Hannah Kurth 4-0-1, Totals 40-7-11.

Assists – Reagan Angus 21, Kambira Leazer 9, Taylor Bechen 4, Delainey Winkel 3

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