Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – Jaedynn Evans is rarely going to turn down an opportunity to play more volleyball.

Thursday provided a rare moment when Evans was hoping for a short night on the court.

Thanks to a furious third-set rally Evans and her Regina teammates got what they were looking for with a 25-18, 25-18, 25-23 sweep of Class 2A No. 14 Bellevue in a River Valley Conference cross-divisional match at Regina.

“Oh my gosh it was great to get that one in three sets,” Evans said. “I think we are all kind of fatigued with all these five-set games so it was nice to finish in three.”

Considering the week Regina had leading up to Thursday’s top-15 showdown with Bellevue it makes sense why the Regals were hoping for a quick match.  

Regina outlasted Durant in a five-set thriller last Thursday, went 2-2 at the Marion tournament on Saturday and survived another five-set, knock down at No. 11 Wilton on Tuesday.

Evans and Alex Wiese made sure Regina got an early finish on Thursday.

Wiese had 14 kills and Evans had a match-high 21 kills as No. 10 Regina improved to 19-5 on the season.

“After two fives in a row it was nice to finish it in three for sure,” Wiese said. “It was definitely nice the quicker game is much better than five.”

Evans had eight of her match-high 21 kills in the third set as Regina rallied from an 18-8 deficit to complete the sweep.

The junior had six kills during an 11-3 Regina run to close the match as the Regals erased a 20-13 deficit.

“I was fatigued,” Evans said. “Five sets is a lot, all of the sets were close on Tuesday and Wilton is really, really good so we just had to push ahead a little at a time today.”

It was quick but it certainly wasn’t easy for Regina on Thursday.

Regina won each of the first two sets 25-18 behind the play of Wiese and Evans.

The duo had 24 of the Regals’ 29 kills in the opening two sets as Regina took control of the match.

“I really was impressed with how we played the first two sets,” Regina coach Jordyn Akers said. “We’ve been working a lot the last week on anticipating where the ball is going to go and what is happening and so I was very proud of how they played the first two tonight.”

A quick finish seemed like a long-shot for Regina in the third set.

Bellevue took an 11-5 lead and used a 7-1 run to take its biggest lead of the set at 18-8.

Regina cut the lead to 18-13 with a 5-0 run that featured an ace block and a kill by Wiese and an Emily Bonnett ace serve.

Bellevue pushed the lead back to 20-13 but Regina responded with four straight points on a kill and an ace block by Katrina Chambliss and back-to-back kills by Evans.

“I honestly felt we were really still in it at 18-8,” Evans said. “We just had to slowly get back in our rhythm.”

Trailing 22-19 Regina made one final push.

The Regals tied the score on an Alexa Lehman kill and back-to-back kills by Evans.

A Chambliss ace serve and another Evans kill put Regina up 24-22.

“That was really helpful to have Jaedynn in rhythm especially at the end,” Akers said. “It was helpful to have her playing well at the end.”

Bellevue got to 24-23 on a kill by Rebecca Schroeder but Wiese closed out the match with a back-row kill.

“Our coach always says five points at a time,” Wiese said. “We just tried to play little games to five and fought back and were able to get it.”

Schroeder led Bellevue (11-4) with 10 kills while Emma Kelchen had seven.

Lehman finished with four kills and Chambliss had three for the Regals.

 “They played really well but we were doing everything really well tonight,” Wiese said. “We were all clicking and we were able to roll with it.”

Regina            25  25  25

Bellevue          18  18  23

(Kills-Aces-Blocks)

Regina

Alex Wiese 14-0-1, Ellie VanLandschoot 2-0-0, Alexa Lehman 4-1-1, Clare Dunne 0-1-0, Jaedynn Evans 21-3-1, Katrina Chambliss 3-3-2, Team 44-8-5.

Assists – Emily Bonnett 31, Alex Wiese 2.

Bellevue

Giana Michels 0-2-0, Emma Kelchen 7-0-0, Aubrie Hager 0-1-0, Lindsey Banowetz 4-0-1, Brin Daugherty 0-2-0, Paige Klein 0-1-0, Rebecca Schroeder 10-1-0, Taylor Back 2-0-0, Eliza Scheckel 4-0-0, Team 27-6-2.

Assists – Brin Daugherty 10, Rebecca Schroeder 9, Giana Michels 1, Taylor Wagner 1.