Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – Liberty High had less than 48 hours between a five-set loss to rival West High on Tuesday and its second cross-town showdown of the season against City High.

The Lightning used that opportunity to look back at Tuesday’s emotional loss to the Trojans before fully shifting their focus to the remainder of the season.

Liberty High showed on Thursday it had quickly moved forward.

Class 5A ninth-ranked Liberty High was razor sharp in a 25-15, 25-21, 25-12 sweep of cross-town rival City High on senior night on Thursday in North Liberty.

“We really focused a good chunk of our practice on the mental side and what we could do to recover from that game because obviously that was an upsetting loss but it doesn’t define us as a team,” Liberty High senior Jessica Steburg said. “We are really good at moving forward and looking at the next step and not what we’ve done in the past.”

Steburg had a match-high 12 kills on Thursday to lead Liberty High (18-7) in its impressive bounce back win.

Ellie Wilson added 10 kills as Liberty High improved to 18-7 on the season with its ninth consecutive win over City High.

“It was good to get back out here, it was a good reset for our team,” Liberty High coach Jessica Hauptmann said. “We approached it as a new day, a new game and that was all of our focus. That was all of our focus was to go out there and show what we really have. We worked hard on Tuesday but it wasn’t completely our team and today was a better showing.”

Liberty High sustained its first Mississippi Valley Conference loss of the season on Tuesday with it’s five-set setback at West High.

The Lightning showed no signs of sluggishness on Thursday.

Liberty High had runs of at least four consecutive points in all three sets while getting back in the win column.

“Tuesday was a really long, hard match so it was really good to get back into it and play again and be able to get back on the court,” Liberty High junior Sydney Van Heukelom said. “It was great to get a win.”

Liberty High was sharp from the opening serve.

The Lightning never trailed in the opening set, jumping to an 8-2 lead on its way to a 25-15 win in the first set.

Junior Ava Meidlinger had five kills and Van Heukelom had four kills in the first-set win.

“We talked a lot after the match about just cleaning things up and just mentally resetting after Tuesday because that wasn’t the end all be all of our season,” Van Heukelom said. “We wanted to focus on what was next.”

City High (8-16) led 9-7 in the second set but Liberty High answered with a 7-0 run to take a 14-9 lead it would never give up.

The Lightning erased an early deficit in the third set with a 6-1 burst that featured kills from setter Hadley Miller and an ace serve from libero Edie Miller.

The 6-1 run turned a one-point deficit into an 8-4 lead the Lightning would never give up.

Meidlinger had seven kills and Van Heukelom added six for the Lightning while Miller had five from her setter spot.

“I thought we spread our offense really well, everyone was involved today,” Hauptmann said. “It was senior day so we had a lot of people get in there and it was a true team effort today.”

City High                   15  21  12

Liberty High              25  25  25 

City High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Hazel Schluckebier 3-0-1, Maeve Obermueller 5-2-0, Jessi Kucera 1-0-0, Halle Larew 1-0-0, Amilia Mendoza 0-1-0, Kaitlin Loria 7-0-0, Hattie Galloway 7-0-1, Totals 24-3-2.

Assists – Hazel Schluckebier 19, Amilia Mendoza 2

Liberty High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Edie Miller 0-6-0, Hadley Miller 5-2-0, Ashlyn Nordell 1-0-2, Ellie Wilson 10-2-0, Ava Meidlinger 7-0-0, Sydney Van Heukelom 6-0-1, Jessica Steburg 12-0-0, Totals 41-11-3.

Assists – Hadley Miller 30, Edie Miller 2, Sydney Van Heukelom 1

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