Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – Every loss doesn’t have to be a negative.

Clear Creek Amana is focused on proving that point this season.

The Clippers had a WAMAC West Division winning streak snapped last month with a five-set home loss to Williamsburg that denied the Clippers a sixth consecutive outright West Division title.

Rather than dwelling on the rare divisional loss Clear Creek Amana made it a point to turn that setback into a positive going forward.

“It was definitely a reset button,” Clear Creek Amana senior setter Payton Curtin said. “It happened and then it was just about responding, learning and making sure it didn’t happen again.”

The Clippers continued to make good on that goal on Tuesday.

Class 4A fourth-ranked Clear Creek Amana won for the eighth time in its last 10 matches since its September 22 home loss to the Raiders with a dominant 25-21, 25-15, 25-16 sweep of No. 11 Grinnell (16-12, 4-1) in the WAMAC regular season finale for both teams in Tiffin.

Clear Creek Amana (23-6, 4-1) earned a share of the West Division title with the win, the sixth consecutive season the Clippers have earned at least a share of the divisional title.

“We always think about the next goal,” Clear Creek Amana junior Julia Schlarbaum said. “That was to win this match and win this side of the conference. Now it’s to win the whole WAMAC.”

Since the loss to Williamsburg last month Clear Creek Amana has posted a pair of WAMAC West Division sweeps of Benton Community and Grinnell.

The lone two losses for CCA during that stretch came to top-10 ranked opponents North Polk and Ballard at the Nevada Invite.

“That loss definitely sparked a fire in us,” Schlarbaum said. “We didn’t want to lose again, we knew we could do better and we wanted to prove that we could play better than we did that night.”

Schlarbaum had a match-high 19 kills on Tuesday as Clear Creek Amana controlled the match from the opening serve.

The Clippers didn’t trail in either of the first two sets and used 11-0 run to erase an early 6-3 deficit in the third.

“I thought we were smoother tonight,” Clear Creek Amana coach Jackie Clubb said. “We changed a couple of things in practice and that has helped, Williamsburg was the big ‘a-ha’ moment so we made a couple of pretty big adjustments.”

Clear Creek Amana scored the first five points of the opening set behind a pair of Schlarbaum kills and never let the Tigers get closer than two points.

Schlarbaum had eight of her match-high 19 kills in the opener.

“I think we were being really scrappy tonight,” Schlarbaum said. “We were also communicating really well with our hitters and telling them where to go.”

Clear Creek Amana scored four consecutive points to open the second set and jumped to an early 6-1 lead.

The Clippers had seven different runs of four consecutive points or longer in the match.

“It’s definitely really important to have those runs,” Schlarbaum said. “In order to have those long stretches we have to make sure we are getting our passes up and making sure our setters are setting good balls and then terminating the ball and getting kills.”

Clear Creek Amana trailed 6-3 early in the third set but used an 11-0 burst that four kills and a block from junior Delaney Vaske to take a 14-6 lead.

Vaske and senior Bailey Simpson each finished with nine kills for the Clippers which held a 44-25 edge in total kills.

“She is somebody that team’s underestimate,” Clubb said of Vaske. “Her hitting percentage has gone way up and that’s been good.”

Clear Creek Amana scored six of the next seven points following its 11-0 run and built a 20-8 advantage.

“I think we were very prepared for it tonight,” Curtin said. “We go over film, we watch all the things so we know what to expect from the other team.”

Grinnell                                 21  15  16       

Clear Creek Amana             25  25  25

Grinnell (Kills-aces-blocks)

Ava Seney 3-0-3, Brooke Maschmeier 1-0-0, Terriyah Carter 4-0-0, Kendra Nolton 9-3-2, Macy Laug 3-0-0, Maryn Sherman 3-1-2, Mya Hart 2-0-1, Totals 25-4-8.

Assists – Katelyn Nath 16, Macy Laug 7

Clear Creek Amana (Kills-aces-blocks)

Bella Behrens 1-1-0, Bailey Simpson 9-2-0, Julia Schlarbaum 19-0-1, Payton Curtin 1-0-0, Haydin Wauters 4-0-2, Delaney Vaske 9-2-1, Payson Ellard 1-0-1, Totals 44-5-5.

Assists – Payton Curtin 34

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