Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – Cassidy Hartman, Lilah VanScoyoc and Shelby Kimm have spent the past four seasons helping to turn the Liberty High volleyball program into one of the best in the state.

Thursday the senior trio helped the Lightning make history.

Hartman, Kimm and VanScoyoc combined for 55 kills as top-ranked Liberty High won the first state title in school history with a 20-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-22 win over defending state champion Pleasant Valley in the 5A championship match at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“It means so much, we are the first group of seniors that started this state run and established ourselves,” VanScoyoc said. “It’s our first team state championship in all of Liberty High which is a huge. Not a lot of people get to be a part of that.”

The state title for Liberty High comes in just its sixth season.

Kimm, Hartman, VanScoyoc have been around for four of those seasons helping the Lightning to 125 wins and four consecutive state tournament appearances including a runner-up finish in 2020.

The breakthrough came Thursday on the state’s biggest stage.

Hartman had a match-high 24 kills and Liberty High (33-8) rallied from an opening-set loss for the second time at the state tournament to claim its first ever title.

“It’s just an amazing feeling, ending our senior year as state champions, ending with a win is just amazing,” Hartman said. “We have worked so hard for it. This team has had so much grit and wanting it from last year. We called it our revenge season.”

Kimm had 17 kills and a team-high 16 digs in the title match, VanScoyoc had 14 kills and an ace serve.

The combination of the three Liberty High seniors was too much for a third-ranked Pleasant Valley (29-7) to slow.

“It’s amazing to have our seniors play like they did today,” Kimm said. “Lilah has improved a lot over the season and it’s great to have three options especially on both pins because it’s hard to block both at the same time.”

Seeking to become the first 5A team to win consecutive titles since 2016 Pleasant Valley was impressive early.

The Spartans had eight blocks in a 25-20 opening-set win, five coming from 6-foot-5 senior Izzy Van De Wiele.

Van De Wiele had back-to-back ace blocks that capped a five-point Pleasant Valley run that ended the opening set.

“I think some of our hitters were trying too hard to avoid that middle block,” Liberty High coach Allie Kelly said. “So doing enough to get it around her, she is an excellent blocker and a huge presence to get around so for us to kind of figure that out was huge and then our right sides got going a little which was nice as well.”

Liberty High got rolling quickly after the opening-set loss.

The Lightning used an 8-1 run in the second set to open a 22-12 lead on its way to a 25-17 win.

In the third set the Lightning snapped a 19-all tie with a three-point surge fueled by a kill and an ace block from 5A all-tournament team captain Hartman.

“Here this week it has taken us a little while to get used to the crowd and get used to the other team and just the vibe of it,” Hartman said. “Once we get that click and start playing our game we are on for the whole game.”

VanScoyoc helped Liberty High secure the title.

The senior had eight of her 14 kills in the fourth set as Liberty High overcame a late 19-15 deficit.

Back-to-back kills by VanScoyoc started a 9-3 Liberty High run that closed out the match.

“They weren’t focusing on me which makes it feel good because I can really swing away with less pressure,” VanScoyoc said. “They weren’t expecting me to get those kills which puts me in a really great position.”

Fittingly it was Hartman, the all-time Liberty High kill leader, who closed out the title.

The match-clinching kill for Hartman was her 67^th of the tournament.

“It means a lot, it’s history made at Liberty,” Hartman said. “It means a lot to represent for our school and for our city. We feel the love from our school so to give back to our school it’s an amazing feeling.”

Kimm joined Hartman on the 5A all-tournament team finishing with 42 kills and 41 digs in three matches at the state tournament.

“We kept on pushing an kept our energy up,” Kimm said. “Even if we were down a couple of points we didn’t let that stop us we just kept going because we knew what we wanted.”

Senior Isabelle Mehmen had a kill, two ace serves and 10 digs in the win.

Sophomore Asta Hildebrand added 32 assists and eight kills and Mariah Rollins had 26 assists.

“It was amazing to see everybody step up today,” Hartman said. “Isabelle really stepped up in the back row, Lilah and Shelby were amazing, our setters were really good and it really showed how much we wanted it and we weren’t going to take any points off.”

Liberty High              20  25  25  25

Pleasant Valley          25  17  22  22

Liberty High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Gracie Hennings 0-0-3, Lauren Ramspott 1-0-4, Shelby Kimm 17-2-2, Isabelle Mehmen 1-2-0, Asta Hildebrand 8-0-1, Cassidy Hartman 24-0-3, Lilah VanScoyoc 14-1-2, Mariah Rollins 1-0-0, Totals 66-5-15.

Assists – Asta Hildebrand 32, Mariah Rollins 26, Cassidy Hartman 3, Isabelle Mehmen 3, Shelby Kimm 2, Gracie Hennings 1

Pleasant Valley (Kills-aces-blocks)

Halle Vice 14-0-1, Siena Roethler 3-0-3, Emily Goodpaster 11-1-3, Izzy Van De Wiele 3-0-8, Chloe Cline 10-0-5, Isabelle Kremer 11-0-2, Totals 52-1-22.

Assists – Siena Roethler 43, Abbie Staats 2, Molly Albrecht 2, Emily Goodpaster 1, Halle Vice 1

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