Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Regina sophomore Reese Naeve opened the week with a 30-kill masterpiece in a five-set win at Monticello on Tuesday.

The encore from Naeve on Thursday was even more impressive.

Naeve hammered 26 kills as Class 2A No. 10 Regina earned its second River Valley Conference win of the week with a 25-13, 25-14, 25-13 sweep of Durant in an RVC South Division tilt in Iowa City.

Sophomore Kiley Devery added 14 kills to go with the match-high 26 from Naeve as Regina finished with a 51-20 edge in kills.

The win was the seventh straight for Regina which improved to 10-3 on the season while Durant dropped to 6-4.

“Durant is a very good team and coming in we knew that so we knew we had to stay up the whole time and not have any drops in energy,” Naeve said. “We know we need to stay at the highest level we can play at all the time and if we do that we will do well.”

Naeve burst onto the scene a year ago when she hammered 442 during an impressive freshman season.

This fall Naeve has taken her game to another level while helping Regina get out to a strong start.

Thursday was the latest in a growing list of stellar performances from Naeve who leads the Regals with 168 kills this season.

“Reese has improved in her ability to be able to now have an all-around game and not just the attacking,” Hansen said. “They served at her every single ball and she responded. That to me is a leader and someone that is consistent.”

Naeve got rolling early on Thursday as the Regals set the tone in the opening set.

Ten of the 26 kills for Naeve came in the first set including five during a 14-4 Regal run to open the match.

“I definitely like to swing early and kind of see what is open on the court,” Naeve said. “Once I find my spot I hit that spot until I get stopped.”

Durant had trouble stopping Naeve all match.

She had six kills in the second set before posting 10 in a 25-13 Regina win in the third set.

“It’s just all about our serve receive,” Naeve said. “I am on when our serve receive is on, it’s hard to get in system when our serve receive is off so that really helped tonight.”

Devery offered an impressive compliment to Naeve on Thursday.

The 6-foot-1 sophomore had six kills in each of the first two sets on her way to a 14-kill outing.

Devery has 111 kills this season after posting 166 as a freshman last fall.

“She has been just busting it in the offseason doing everything that I have asked her to do,” Hansen said of Devery. “We told her we were going to need to put her on a pin this year and she said, ‘I’ll do whatever you need’.”

Caitlin Martin, Abby Schuessler and Sydney Wagner all added three kills for Regina while Wagner had 28 assists.

“I think what’s really cool is we have three pin players, we have Reese, Kiley Devery and Caitlin Martin that can play any pin. So what we are doing to keep defenses on their toes is we move them around as much as we possibly can.”

Durant                        13  14  13

Regina                        25  25  25

Durant (Kills-aces-blocks)

Layla Streeter 5-0-1, Paige Happ 1-0-1, Isabelle DeLong 6-1-0, Allison Toft 3-0-1, Katelyn Toft 5-0-0, Totals 20-1-3.

Assists – Kennedy Jehle 8

Regina (Kills-aces-blocks)

Kiley Devery 14-0-0, Reese Naeve 26-1-0, Addison Bollier 0-2-0, Caitlin Martin 3-0-0, Elizabeth Nolte 2-0-0, Abby Schuessler 3-1-1, Sydney Wagner 3-3-0, Totals 51-7-1.

Assists – Sydney Wagner 26

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