Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The regular season meeting between River Valley Conference rivals Regina and West Branch left the Bears hoping for a rematch.

The postseason sequel proved to be worth the wait for West Branch.

West Branch avenged a five-set regular season loss to the Regals on Wednesday rallying for a 20-25, 25-23, 25-27, 25-19, 15-8 win over No. 14 Regina in a Class 2A, Region 7 quarterfinal in Iowa City.

“It’s feels fabulous,” West Branch coach Becky Hosier said. “We knew we could beat them. We went five with them before, we were right there, and our girls knew they could beat these girls and they just kept believing.”

West Branch (17-16) got double digit kills from four different players led by senior Emily Coleman who had four of her team-high 14 kills in the decisive fifth set.

The win came after Regina won a five-set thriller back on September 14 and sends West Branch into the Region 7 semifinals where it will travel to Lisbon (28-6) on Monday at 7 p.m.

Regina closes the season 26-11.

“We had to trust ourselves,” Coleman said. “We had to go in thinking we were going to win and then just believe we could get the next point. We knew we could do it.”

In the regular season meeting it was Regina that seized the momentum late in a back-and-forth match.

On Wednesday it was West Branch that made the critical plays in the final two sets.

Regina jumped to a 4-0 lead in the fifth set but West Branch responded with a 13-0 run behind the serving of senior Alyse Klinkkammer

“Falling behind, we just had to stay positive,” Klinkkammer said. “This team always stays positive, we stress on that in practice and our coaches always tell us to stay positive and I think that was something that really helped us in the fifth set.”

Klinkkammer had a pair of ace serves during the 13-0 West Branch burst that featured three kills and a solo block by Coleman and a pair of kills from Kya Montgomery.

Regina closed the lead to 13-8 but West Branch stopped the run with a Coleman kill and secured the win on a Regal hitting error.

“After getting some blocks and getting on runs on kills the energy was crazy,” Coleman said. “We wanted to keep it going and we did that.”

Just as it did in the regular season meeting between the two teams Regina took control early.

The Regals used an early 6-0 run to take an 8-4 lead and never trailed again in a 25-20 opening-set win.

Regina appeared to be cruising to a two-set lead up 18-12 late in the second set when West Branch mounted a rally.

The Bears got as close as 22-19 before a Reese Naeve kill gave Regina a 23-19 cushion.

That was the final point Regina would score.

West Branch closed the second set on a 6-0 run, evening the match with a 25-23 win.

“We came out and were in complete control in set one and a majority of set two and we knew what we had to do but honestly their libero, whatever we were giving them they were digging up,” Regina coach Lauren Hansen said. “That frustrated us and we had to continue to be errorless on our side and we struggled with that.”

Regina had a similar late surge to win the third set, rallying from 24-22 down with a 5-1 run that featured four kills by Naeve.

The sophomore entered leading the state in kills and finished with a match-high 31 but had just two in the fifth set.

“In practice we worked outside the whole just to be ready for Naeve and she’s an incredible player,” Klinkkammer said. “Our libero did amazing reading her and digging those balls up and our block was always there. We put all those pieces together.”

Trailing two sets to one West Branch dug in.

The Bears never trailed while winning the fourth set 25-19 and after the early 4-0 deficit didn’t trail in the fifth set.

“We have a lot of seniors out there and they wanted it,” Hosier said. “They didn’t give up, they fought for it because they wanted it that bad. I have to give credit to our seniors because they got themselves in a hole but they dug themselves back out.”

JaLynn Falco had 13 kills, Montgomery had 12 and Klinkkammer 10 for West Branch which finished with a 59-50 edge in kills despite the 31 by Naeve.

“It’s incredible,” Klinkkammer said. “At this point in the season everyone is playing for their seniors all of us played together and it was just incredible.”

Sophomore Kiley Devery had 10 kills for Regina and Caitlin Martin added six for the Regals while senior setter Sydney Wagner had 40 assists.

“I am super happy with how we played, we had some grit that I hadn’t seen a whole lot of yet and it was awesome to see that out of us,” Hansen said. “Our season was incredible and we have four freshman and sophomores starting so what is to come for this team is going to be pretty incredible,” Hansen said. “The sad part is losing Sydney Wagner who is the heart and soul of this team.”

West Branch            20  25  25  25  15  

Regina                        25  23  27  19   8

Regina (Kills-aces-blocks)

Kiley Devery 10-2-1, Reese Naeve 31-1-0, Addison Bollier 0-1-0, Caitlin Martin 6-1-0, Abby Schuessler 2-0-2, Sydney Wagner 1-2-0, Totals 50-7-3.

Assists – Sydney Wagner 40, Addison Bollier 2

West Branch (Kills-aces-blocks)

Alyse Klinkkammer 10-3-0, Kylie Pickett 5-3-1, Emily Coleman 14-0-4, Claire Jarrett 0-2-0, Kya Montgomery 12-0-0, Jalynn Falco 13-3-0, Alyssa Vargason 5-0-0, Madelynn Falco 0-2-0, Totals 59-13-5.

Assists – Kylie Pickett 27, Claire Jarrett 12, Alyse Klinkkammer 2, Madelynn Falco 2

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