Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The postseason opener for Regina was a rivalry match and a shot at postseason revenge against the team that ended its season a year ago.

More importantly Wednesday’s regional quarterfinal against West Branch was the first step in what Regina hopes is a long postseason run.

Eighth-ranked Regina avenged a quarterfinal loss to West Branch last season with a 25-12, 25-16, 25-17 sweep of the Bears in a Class 2A, Region 8 quarterfinal in Iowa City.

“We knew that this is a rival game, we knew it was going to be tough and we knew they were going to play their best against us,” Regina coach Lauren Hansen said. “But we also knew this was just one step in our road to state.”

Regina (22-14) got a match-high 23 kills from junior standout Reese Naeve and 14 from senior Caitlin Martin while advancing to the Region 8 semifinals.

Regina will host North Mahaska (21-1) in the Region 8 semifinals on Monday at 7 p.m.

North Mahaska swept Pekin 25-18 25-11, 25-14 in a quarterfinal on Monday.

“We try to take it one match at a time, we don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves,” Martin said. “We are confident that we can go all the way.”

Wednesday’s quarterfinal contest was a similar situation to last season.

Regina was the higher seed, at home in a regional quarterfinal off a layoff.

A year ago West Branch won the final two sets to pull the upset over Regina.

On Wednesday a focused Regina team earned a measure of revenge.

“I think a big part of last year was we underestimated them and that was a big part of why we lost that game,” Naeve said. “This year we came in treating it like every other game, we knew that we had to execute our side in order to win, we weren’t really worried about what they were going to do we just had to do what we do.”

Regina raced to a 9-3 lead in the opening set and all but put things away with an 11-0 burst that gave the Regals a 20-4 lead.

Naeve had three kills during the 11-0 run.

“In the past we’ve been inconsistent and up and down and we’ve really been working on starting strong and not coming in overconfident,” Naeve said. “We want to be confident enough to believe in ourselves but not underestimate any team.”

Regina neve trailed in either of the final two sets while completing the sweep.

The state leader in kills with 644 entering the night, Naeve had eight kills in each of the first two sets and seven in the final set.

“If we win the serve and pass we know that the rest of it is going to come along because our attackers are phenomenal, they are going to put the ball away,” Hansen said. “If we can’t serve and pass the rest of it isn’t going to come along.”

Martin added 14 sets including seven in the second set as Regina began to pull away.

“We play a lot better when we stay calm and we were just trying to have fun and be loose because we always play better that way,” Martin said. “We knew coming in that this was a team that we could beat so we just tried to stay confident the whole time.”

West Branch (6-25) was led by Kennedy Simpson with eight kills while Alyssa Vargason added six kills for the Bears.

“Maddy Falco is a phenomenal libero and she’s had an incredible career at West Branch and so we just had to make sure we kept the ball away from here and I thought we did a great job of that tonight,” Hansen said. “She barely touched the ball and that was our goal.”

West Branch              12  16  17

Regina                        25  25  25

Regina (Kills-aces-blocks)

Adalee Klein 0-1-1, Reese Naeve 23-1-0, Ella McLaughlin 0-1-0, Caitlin Martin 14-0-0, Nora Willhelm 1-0-0, Ruby Greving 4-0-0, Leah Sickels 2-0-0, Totals 44-3-1.

Assists – Nora Willhelm 36, Addison Bollier 3

West Branch (Kills-aces-blocks)

Lyla Popkes 0-1-0, Kennedy Simpson 8-1-0, Ava Burnett 0-0-2, MadeLynn Falco 0-1-0, Briley Kaalberg 3-0-1, Alyssa Vargason 6-0-0, Dani Crutchley 0-0-1, Alyssa Pierce 2-0-0, Totals 19-3-4.

Assists – Lyla Popkes 10, Kennedy Simpson 3, Ava Burnett 2

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