Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – Regina wasn’t perfect in its season-opening performance at the West Branch Tournament.  

There’s no such thing as a perfect performance in sports but the Regals certainly weren’t far off of perfection on Saturday.

Regina (5-0) won five straight matches without dropping a set and claimed the tourney title with a 25-22, 25-14 sweep of Don Bosco in the title game.

“I’m ecstatic,” First-year head coach Jordyn Akers said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better start. Coming in you never know exactly what to expect so to come in and go 5-0 and not go to a third set all is awesome.”

Regina was impressive during pool play and got better as the day went on.

The Regals didn’t have a set closer than four points in three pool play victories and downed West Branch (2-2) 25-17, 25-21 in the semifinals before sweeping Don Bosco in the title match.

“There are definitely things we can improve on but I think we gelled really well as a team,” Regina libero Clare Dunne said. “This is the first time all of us have played together so we are really happy with how we played but can definitely get better.”
Regina picked up wins over Highland (21-9, 21-6), Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont (21-12, 21-14) and Don Bosco (21-17, 21-12) during pool play.

In a semifinal win over West Branch the Regals scored the final four points of the second set to break a 21-all and secure the sweep.

“That was exciting,” Akers said of the win over West Branch. “I think I jumped on game point. It was kind of that light and where we saw we could do it.”

By the time the title game rolled around Regina was hitting on all cylinders.

Juniors Jaedynn Evans and Alex Wiese each had eight kills as the Regals held a 25 to 9 advantage in kills in the title game win over Don Bosco.

“I 100 percent think we got better as the day went on,” Evans said. “I think we started out a little slow but got so much better and we proved it.”

Regina led 14-12 in the opening set but used a 5-0 run to take control.

Katrina Chambliss had one of her three ace serves during the 5-0 spurt that featured kills from Alexa Lehman and Wiese.

“I definitely think we got better as the day went on,” Dunne said. “The first game is always a little rough, the nerves were on but as the day went on we gelled more and it got easier to be more confident.”

Don Bosco got as close as 23-21 on a kill by Maddie Huff but Regina answered with a Wiese block and clinched the opening set on a kill by Chambliss.

“I think we just calmed down,” Dunne said. “They made a run and we just calmed down a little and became more comfortable with what we were doing.”

It was all Regina in the second set.

The Regals used a 7-1 run to take a 9-4 lead that would never be threatened.

Evans had five of her eight kills in the tournament-clinching set.

“I have really high expectations for this team,” Evans said. “I think we can make a good run at state.”

West Branch finished 2-2 on Saturday defeating Lone Tree 21-11, 21-13 and Winfield-Mount Union 21-14, 21-18 and falling to Class 1A No. 8 Montezuma 18-21, 21-16, 15-13 in pool play.

The Bears got a huge tournament from junior Abbey Fryauf who rolled up 40 kills in four matches.

Kaiya Luneckas had 15 kills and Sophie Nopolous nine kills and 26 assists for the Bears.

West Branch Tournament Championship Match

Regina            25  25

Don Bosco      22  14

Kills-aces-blocks

Regina

Alex Wiese 8-0-0, Emily Bonnett 0-1-0, Ellie VanLandschoot 1-0-1, Alexa Lehman 4-0-0, Jaedynn Evans 8-0-0, Katrina Chambliss 3-3-0, Clare Dunne 0-1-0, Team 24-5-1.

Assists – Emily Bonnett 14

Don Bosco

Kindra Welter 2-2-0, Maddie Huff 2-0-4, Jenna Brown 3-0-0, Mandee Miller 1-0-0, Ashley Grapp 1-0-1, Team 9-2-5.

Assists – Kennedi Purdy 7.