Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – The celebration from Clear Creek Amana seemed slightly subdued after the Clippers secured a second consecutive trip to the 4A state tournament on Tuesday.

There were plenty of smiles and hugs for the top-ranked Clippers following a 25-12, 25-10, 25-7 sweep of Oskaloosa (16-17) in the 4A, Region 8 title game.

The post-match celebration seemed to come with realization the most important matches and biggest prize await next week.

“This is a stepping stone on the way to our goal,” Beck said. “Staying calm and collected was part of our game plan tonight. We know what we can do and we want to keep on going and this was part of the journey.”

Beck had a match-high 12 kills and sophomore Averie Lower added eight kills on Tuesday as defending 4A state runner-up Clear Creek Amana improved to 45-0 on the season and secured the first back-to-back state tournament appearances in program history.

“This is what we’ve been playing for all season so we really wanted to go out there and take the next step toward our goal,” Clear Creek Amana senior Sam Schrage said. “Tonight was the next step.”

Last season reaching the state tournament was the clear goal for the Clippers.

A lot has changed since Clear Creek Amana’s regional final win at West Delaware last October.

The Clippers finished runner-up at the state meet a year ago and will open state tournament play on Monday at 4 p.m. against Norwalk (26-14) the same way they started the season – top-ranked and without a loss.

“We don’t talk about it, it’s probably more the coaches that comprehend it more than anything we focus on one point and one game at a time,” Clear Creek Amana coach Jackie Clubb said of being undefeated. “It’s been about realizing that everyone wants to be the one to knock us off and we don’t want anyone to take that away from us.”

Clear Creek Amana looked every bit like a top-ranked, undefeated team on Tuesday from the opening serve.

The Clippers scored the first five points of the match behind a pair of kills from Beck and two ace serves from senior Addison Gisleson.

“We’ve been harping on starting out well and not letting teams in,” Schrage said. “We finally executed with that tonight.”

Beck had seven of her match-high 12 kills in the opening set including three in a eight-point Clear Creek Amana run that gave the Clippers a 23-9 lead.

“We try to come out with energy every match and I think that’s part of what helped tonight,” Beck said. “We’ve had trouble with starting off kind of low in certain games but we are trying to get better at that.”

Clear Creek Amana never trailed in a single set on Tuesday and had nine runs of 4-0 or more in the match.

Clear Creek Amana bolted to a 12-3 win in the second set on its way to a 25-10 win.

Clear Creek Amana scored 15 of the final 16 points, including the final 11 in a 25-7 win in the third set.

“You can’t underestimate a team so we came into this match ready,” Lower said. “We practiced everything that they did well and what our weak spots might be and that paid off.”

Lower had eight kills and two blocks for Clear Creek Amana and Schrage and Emily Henderson each had four kills.

Schrage had three ace serves and four blocks and Gisleson had three ace serves and two kills.

“It can’t just be one or two players and that’s been our focus,” Clubb said. “It has to be everybody for us to keep going and I think everyone has accepted that.”

Clear Creek Amana            25  25  25

Oskaloosa                              12  10   7

Clear Creek Amana (Kills-aces-blocks)

Meg Berkland 0-1-0, Bliss Beck 12-0-2, Emily Henderson 4-0-0, Sariah Sherman 2-0-0, Sam Schrage 4-3-4, Addison Gisleson 2-3-0, Averie Lower 8-0-2, Totals 32-7-8.

Assists – Emily Henderson 19, Kenadi Wood 11

Oskaloosa (Kills-aces-blocks

Hannah Quang 3-0-1, Addison McKain 1-0-0, Haylee Parker 3-1-0, Gracie DeRonde 9-0-0, Dasia Foster 4-0-0, Totals 20-1-1.

Assists – Lily Bonnett 11, Lydia Van Veldhuizen 5

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