Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – In her final home match Reese Naeve was seeking a fitting finish to what has been an extraordinary prep career.

Naeve was more than happy to share the spotlight in her home finale.

Junior Adalee Klein hammered a career-high 18 kills and Naeve had a match-high 24 to lift eighth-ranked Regina to a 25-18, 25-19, 25-16 sweep of West Burlington in a Class 2A, Region 8 semifinal on Monday in Iowa City.

“Adalee was the heart and soul of the match,” Naeve said. “She had 18 kills as a middle, that is an insane number I have never seen anyone hit so good. We had complete trust in her every ball, She completely took over and she’s the reason that we won that.”

Naeve sparkled early and Klein was dominate late as Regina (29-13) advanced to the Region 8 title game.

Regina will face No. 10 Sumner-Fredericksburg (26-14) in the regional title game on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Center Point-Urbana high school.

“We have already played Sumner so we are feeling really good and like we are in a good spot going into Wednesday,” Klein said. “We know they are a great team but we have confidence in ourselves.”

Playing for the final time on her home court, Naeve came out firing on Monday.

Naeve had 12 of her match-high 24 kills in the opening set as Regina jumped to a 15-4 lead and cruised to a 25-18 win.

“I just feel like everyone came into this game very confident, we knew we could do it,” Naeve said. “We have the best coaching staff in the state, the best teammates and everyone was really just energetic and it carried over to the court.”

An Iowa State recruit, Naeve had eight kills in the second set, including three during a 7-2 Regal run that closed out a 25-19 win in the second set.

“It was definitely weird leaving my house today knowing this is the last time I was going to play at Regina but it didn’t really hit me until after when we were in the huddle breaking it down,” Naeve said. “I was like ‘oh my gosh’ and it really hit me this was my last game here.”

Klein took care of the rest for Regina.

The 6-foot-2 junior pounded eight of her 18 kills in the final two sets to help Regina rally from an early 10-4 deficit.

“I just knew that the ball was going to keep coming to me,” Klein said. “I just had to keep staying consistent and kill the ball.”

Regina took a timeout trailing 10-4.

Klein had a kill during a four-point Regina run that cut the margin to 10-8.

After a kill by West Burlington senior Kyleigh Applegate made it 11-8 Falcons the Regals put together a match-clinching 12-0 run.

Klein had five kills and a block during the 12-0 burst that gave Regina a 20-11 lead.

“I just get telling (setter) Nora (Wilhelm) to feed her, I want her to keep going and she kept going and she was on fire tonight,” Regina coach Lauren Hansen said. “I love that we have another option because it makes us a lot harder to defend.”

With Klein and Naeve combining for 42 kills the Regals finished with a 55-30 edge in kills.

Ella Keune had eight kills for Regina.

“We moved the ball around very well which made it hard for the other team to play the ball,” Klein said. “We did a really good job of playing as a team and playing for each other.”

West Burlington                18  19  16

Regina                                    25  25  25

Regina (Kills-aces-blocks)

Kylie Mattoon 0-1-0, Ella Keune 8-0-0, Adalee Klein 18-0-2, Jada Wiltz 1-2-0, Reese Naeve 24-0-0, Ruby Greving 2-0-0, Addison Bollier 1-0-0, Nora Wilhelm 1-3-1, Totals 55-6-3.

Assists – Nora Wilhelm

West Burlington (Kills-aces-blocks)

Brenna Shafer 5-0-0, Elley Frank 4-0-0, Kaylee Webb 13-0-0, Baylee Woodsmall 1-2-0, Kyleigh Applegate 7-1-0, Totals 30-3-0.

Assists – Baylee Woodsmall 27, Brenna Shafer 1

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