Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – While playing in tournaments at City High and West High over the past two weekends Regina faced a whirlwind of unfamiliar, primarily Class 5A competition.

The Regals needed no reminder of who they were facing on Thursday.

Class 2A No. 12 Regina avenged a season-ending loss to West Branch in the 2A regional quarterfinals last season with a 25-18, 25-17, 25-14 sweep of the Bears in a River Valley Conference South Division showdown in West Branch.

“Definitely after the way last year ended we were excited to come out and play this match,” Regina junior Reese Naeve said. “We were looking forward to this one.”

Naeve had a match-high 19 kills and senior Caitlin Martin added seven kills as Regina improved to 9-8 on the season and 3-1 in RVC matches.

West Branch dropped to 2-7 and 1-2 in RVC play.

“We knew what they were going to bring and we were ready for it this year,” Martin said. “We knew they were going to bring a lot of tip and roll shots because that’s what they brought last year and they were effective but we were prepared tonight.”

Thursday’s win came two weeks after Regina was swept in an RVC match by Class 3A No. 15 Wilton.

Regina has gone 6-5 since that loss to the Beavers in Iowa City.

While the record for Regina since that September 5 loss to Wilton doesn’t sparkle the Regals have spent the past two weeks cutting their teeth against some of the best teams in the state.

Regina has five losses to teams ranked in the top-10 in Class 5A, 4A and 3A during that stretch and a pair of wins over ranked 5A teams.

Those matches paid dividends on Thursday.

“We were down in the first set and we took a timeout and we were able to come back,” Regina coach Lauren Hansen said. “I think the beginning of the season we just shut down in that situation and I think we are more mentally tough at this point than we were earlier in the season.”

Regina trailed 7-4 early in the opening set.

Hansen took a timeout and Regina responded by scoring the next five points to take a 9-7 lead it would never relinquish.

“Playing our schedule, We know we are going to be in tough situations and we are going to be down a points,” Naeve said. “We can’t let ourselves stay down we have to fight back and we can’t give up on each other.”

Naeve had seven of her 19 kills in the opening set as Regina took control of the match.

The Regals trailed 10-9 in the second set but used a 5-0 run that featured a solo block and a kill by Naeve to take the lead for good.

“The Wilton match they showed our weaknesses and we’ve really been working since that,” Naeve said. “I think we’ve done a better job of staying on our toes on defense.”

Regina never trailed in a 25-14 win in the third set.

“We are a very young team so we are trying to build up our confidence but our hitting has to be more accurate,” West Branch coach Becky Hosier said. “Our defense is good, we are scrappy and we are know for our scrappy defense but our hitting has to be more consistent.”

Naeve had seven kills in the third set and added two ace serves and a solo block helping Regina finish with a 30-21 edge in kills.

“Against (Naeve) you are just trying to get a touch on it,” Monica Tylee said. “There is nothing else you can do when she is hitting.”

Regina had eight ace serves as Addison Bollier and Nora Willhelm each had two and Adalee Klein and Ella McLaughlin each added one ace.

“We were serving extremely aggressive and we knew that Maddy Falco is an incredible libero and we knew we had to keep the ball away from her,” Hansen said. “She was taking up three fourths of the court so credit to her for that but we served really, really well and they were not in system so I thought we did a great job with our game plan tonight.”

Briley Kaalberg had eight kills, Alyssa Pierce had four kills and Kennedy Simpson had three kills and a pair of solo blocks to lead West Branch.

Regina                        25  25  25

West Branch            18  17  14

Regina (Kills-aces-blocks)

Ella Keune 1-0-0, Adalee Klein 2-1-1, Reese Naeve 19-2-1, Addison Bollier 0-2-0, Ella McLaughlin 0-1-0, Caitlin Martin 7-0-0, Nora Willhelm 0-2-0, Ruby Greving 1-0-0, Totals 30-8-2.

West Branch (Kills-aces-blocks)

Lilah Pedersen 2-0-1, Lyla Popkes 0-2-0, Kennedy Simpson 3-0-2, Kiley Kaalberg 8-0-0, Alyssa Vargason 2-0-0, Dani Crutchley 2-1-0, Alyssa Pierce 4-0-0, Totals 21-3-3.

Did you enjoy this subscription free article? Help keep Your Prep Sports free by donating.