Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Clear Creek Amana spent the offseason dealing with the heightened expectations that come with returning seven players from a state runner-up team.

The Clippers then spent the preseason battling the anticipation of what they hope will be a historic season.

On Tuesday Clear Creek Amana finally got the chance to get back to doing what it does so well – playing volleyball.

Class 4A top-ranked Clear Creek Amana cruised to a 25-20, 25-11, 25-19 sweep of Center Point-Urbana in the season opener for both teams in front of a sizable crowd in Tiffin.

“It was just the anticipation, we needed to get it over with,” Clear Creek Amana coach Jackie Clubb said of the season opener. “It’s good to be able to get into a competitive situation in a conference match and see what we need to work on.”

With seven rotational players returning from last year’s 4A runner-up team including its top four hitters, both setters and an all-state libero expectations have never been higher for Clear Creek Amana.

In their long-awaited season debut the Clippers looked every bit like the title contender they are expected to be.

Four players had at least four kills led by senior Bliss Beck with a match-high 12 as the Clippers finished with a 36-15 edge in kills over Center Point-Urbana.

“It was nice to get the nerves over with,” Beck said. “We have set the expectations for this season and it was nice to put that in motion.”

Senior Sam Schrage had eight kills, sophomore Averie Lower had seven and senior Addison Gisleson added four kills for the Clippers.

Clear Creek Amana had 11 ace blocks, six coming from Beck and two each from sophomore Sariah Sherman and Schrage.

“It was nice getting back into the swing of things and not playing our own team but playing someone else,” Schrage said. “It felt really nice. It was enjoyable to get back into the gym.”

Clear Creek Amana trailed 16-14 midway through the opening set after an 8-1 Center Point-Urbana run.

The Clippers responded by scoring 11 of the final 15 points in a 25-20 opening-set win.

Schrage had a kill and an ace block in a 4-0 spurt that gave the Clippers an 18-16 lead.

“We communicated more as the match went on,” Schrage said. “We weren’t playing as cohesive as we could have been early and I think that cohesiveness got better.”

Clear Creek Amana led 22-20 when Schrage and Beck put the first set away.

Schrage started a late 3-0 Clippers surge with a kill and Beck secured the opening-set win with back-to-back ace blocks.

“I think we got back in the mode of playing with each other,” Beck said. “We know each other so well on the court it’s just getting back to old habits and everyone doing their own job.”

The second set was all Clippers and Beck.

The 6-foot-2 senior had six kills and two ace blocks in a 25-11 second-set win.

Beck and Lower each had four kills in the third set and Schrage had three kills in the third set as Clear Creek Amana quickly built a 16-8 lead on its way to a 25-19 win.

“I think the first set we were just getting the first-game jitters out and as we got moving into later in the first set, the second set and the third set we started figuring everything out,” Schrage said. “We started playing together and did what we do best.”

Clear Creek Amana got three kills from sophomore setter Emily Henderson while Sherman had two kills to go with her two blocks.

“I thought our serve receive was very good and I was very pleased with Sariah Sherman,” Clubb said. “She stepped up and is starting to take that role of replacing Silvana (Kabolo) which is good and I was really pleased with Addison (Gisleson). She played great defense tonight.”

Clear Creek Amana              25  25  25

Center Point-Urbana            20  11  19

Clear Creek Amana (Kills-aces-blocks)

Meg Berkland 0-1-0, Bliss Beck 12-1-6, Emily Henderson 3-1-1, Sariah Sherman 2-0-2, Sam Schrage 8-0-2, Addison Gisleson 4-0-0, Averie Lower 7-0-0, Totals 36-3-11.

Assists – Emily Henderson 15, Kenadi Wood 8, Meg Berkland 3

Center Point-Urbana (Kills-aces-blocks)

Addilyn Wade 0-2-0, Addy Tupa 2-1-0, Jayce Grennan 0-1-1, Allee Schantz 1-0-1, Maya Burkhart 1-0-0, Sydney Maue 5-0-0, Logan Keller 3-1-0, Paige Foltz 3-1-0, Totals 16-6-2.

Assists – Logan Keller 9, Jayce Grennan 3

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