Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

LISBON – The senior-laden West Branch volleyball team entered the season with a clear goal.

Even if that goal wasn’t discussed often during a 15-16 regular season it never went away.

With a second five-set regional win in a span of five days West Branch will have an opportunity to turn that goal into a reality.

West Branch won its second five-set thriller in a row on Monday fending off Lisbon (28-7) 26-24, 25-20, 24-26, 25-23, 15-9 in a Class 2A, Region 7 semifinal in front of a near capacity crowd in Lisbon.

“We came into this season wanting to go far all of us want to go to state,” West Branch senior JaLynn Falco said. “Each game, each point, every set we want to play for one another because that’s what we know we have to do if we want to go as far as we can and we want to go far.”

West Branch (18-16) will face fourth-ranked Denver (33-10) on Wednesday at Union High School in LaPorte City with a berth to the 2A state tournament on the line.

Denver defeated Waterloo Columbus in four sets in the other Region 7 semifinal on Monday.

“I think the girls are really believing,” West Branch coach Becky Hosier said. “We’ve beaten good teams, teams that are ranked higher than us and that’s given us confidence going into the next match.”

Last week West Branch rallied to down No. 14 Regina in five sets in the regional quarterfinals.

On Monday the Bears had an opportunity to put things away early but saw Lisbon rally back.

The Lions overcame a 24-22 deficit to win the third set and scored the final two points of a 25-23 win in the fourth.

Just as it was in the win over Regina last Wednesday, West Branch was at its best with the match on the line on Monday.

“Going into the fifth set we said if we want this as bad as we do we have to play every ball to the very end,” JaLynn Falco said. “We had to play for one another and I think that’s what we did. It was a team effort, it’s not just one person, everyone did their part.”

West Branch took control of the fifth set with a 3-0 burst that snapped a 3-3 tie.

JaLynn Falco started the spurt with a kill and after a Lion error sophomore Alyssa Vargason had a kill to give the Bears a 6-3 lead they would never give up.

“We talked about having each other’s backs and staying on our toes,” West Branch junior libero Madelynn Falco said. “We just had to stick with it and play together.”

Senior Emily Coleman had four of her team-high 14 kills during the fifth set as Wet Branch steadily pulled away.

Kylie Pickett had three kills in the fifth set and matched Coleman and JaLynn Falco with 14 in the match.

“Going into the fifth set we just said, ‘this was our game’,” Pickett said. “We’ve been in this spot before, we knew we could win we just had to play our game.”

Lisbon got a match-high 21 kills from senior Ava Czarnecki and sophomore Mykala Luzum-Selmon added 15 kills.

However after the opening set when the two each had six kills the Bears honed in on the two standout Lion outside hitters.

“We knew that Lisbon was very similar to Regina, they were going to go to their outside hitters,” Hosier said. “That’s what we focused on against Regina so we knew going into Lisbon we just had to keep playing that game, block the outside, work the outside, defend the outside.”

Falco played a key role in the backrow of slowing Czarnecki and Luzum-Selmon.

The duo had just three kills in the decisive fifth set.

“We found what their skills were and tried to stop it from there,” Madelynn Falco said. “They are really good but we worked hard on defense against those players.”

In the win over Regina last week West Branch had six players with at least six kills.

The Bears nearly matched that balanced production on Monday as five players had at least six kills with Alyse Klinkkammer and Vargason finished with six kills each.

“It’s great to have all the hitters that we have,” West Branch coach Monica Tylee said. “We are very versatile and I think that really is helping us this postseason because our opponents don’t know what we are doing, we can do anything off any set.”

West Branch will be seeking its fourth state tournament appearance and first since 2015 when it faces Denver on Wednesday.

“At the start of the season we were playing really well and then we kind of had a dip,” JaLynn Falco said. “Now in the postseason we are really soaring.”

Lisbon                        24  20  26  25   9

West Branch              26  25  24  23  15

Lisbon (Kills-aces-blocks)

Mykala Luzum-Selmon 15-4-0, Kaitlynn Hasselbusch 1-0-0, Ava Czarnecki 21-1-2, Addie Petersen 7-0-3, Sarah Dietsch 6-0-3, Totals 50-5-8.

Assists – Kaitlynn Hasselbusch 41

West Branch (Kills-aces-blocks)

Alyse Klinkkammer 6-1-0, Kylie Pickett 12-1-0, Emily Coleman 14-0-5, Claire Jarrett 1-1-0, Kya Montgomery 3-0-0, JaLynn Falco 14-4-1, Alyssa Vargason 6-0-3, Totals 56-7-9.

Assists – Kylie Pickett 26, Claire Jarrett 10, Madelynn Falco 4

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