Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – With a roster void of upperclassmen Liberty High was among the youngest varsity squads in the state during its debut season last fall.

The young Lightning have grown up quick this season.

Class 4A No. 12 Liberty High showed off that growth on Tuesday with a 25-21, 25-22, 25-23 sweep of Waterloo West in a Mississippi Valley Conference Valley Division matchup in North Liberty.

“We are getting mentally tougher,” Liberty High junior setter Hailey Hested said. “We had all sophomores and freshmen last year and this year it’s pretty much the same lineup but we’ve grown a lot.”  

Liberty High flashed its growth late in the third set as it secured its first ever MVC split while improving to 11-9 on the season and 2-3 in Valley Division play.

The Lightning led by as many as eight in the third set and held a 21-15 lead before Waterloo West stormed back.

Waterloo West (10-10, 1-4) used a 5-0 run to cut the Liberty High lead to a single point at 21-20.

Last season and even earlier this year Liberty High had a tendency to let those runs snowball.

This time Liberty High fought back and never let Waterloo West pull even, clinching the match on a cross-court kill by freshman Sam Harvey.

“We just want to focus on each point and not worry about the last point or the next point,” Liberty High junior LeeAnna Potter said. “Sometimes in the past we’d worry too much about those things and tonight I think we did a better job of just focusing on one point.”

Potter led a balanced Liberty High attack with 11 kills as the Lightning won for the fifth time in Sophomore middle Olivia Slattery added nine kills and three ace blocks and freshman Sydney Woods had seven kills as Liberty High snapped a three-match MVC losing skid.

“We beat a few pretty good teams last weekend (at the Dubuque Invitational) and I am hoping that gave us the confidence that we need to move forward,” Liberty High coach Randy Dolson said. “We are kind of on a little roll, we have gone from under .500 to 11-9 so you are seeing that growth.”

Liberty High looked like a confident bunch early.

The Lightning never trailed in the opening set, racing to a 12-6 lead and never letting the Wahawks get clser than two points the rest of the way.

Potter had five of her 11 kills in the opening set while Woods had four of her seven kills in the 25-21 first-set win.

“We were a lot more aggressive swinging tonight,” Potter said. “We were aggressive swinging and we were scrappy and hitting the floor and getting everything up.”

Liberty High didn’t let up in the second set.

The Lightning broke open a 10-10 tie with a 6-1 run that featured a pair of kills from Slattery and two ace serves from Hested.

“I think our passing is definitely what helped us, when we can get our middles going that really opens up the court,” Hested said.  I can always tell when we pass well because I’m not running around as much and I’m not as tired and I thought we passed really well tonight.”

Waterloo West closed the game to one twice, at 20-19 and 23-22 but both times Liberty High had the answer.

Leading 23-22 the Lightning scored the final two points on a Woods kill and an ace serve by Kaylee Berns.

A serving specialist, Berns had three aces as Liberty High finished with 12 aces as a team which helped offset a 42-33 Waterloo West edge in kills.

“We had a great weekend serving and I thought we served really well tonight and really took them out of our their offense which really helped a lot,” Dolson said. “When they have those players that can just hammer the ball you have to take it out of their hands a little bit.”

Liberty High looked like it was headed for a sweep when it took an 18-11 lead in the third set but Waterloo West rallied behind the play of 6-foot-2 outside Kaylissa Arndorfer.

Andorfer had 12 of her match-high 19 kills in the third set to ignite a Wahawk rally.

She accounted for the final seven Waterloo West points with six kills and an ace block but Liberty High made enough plays late to secure the sweep.

“I thought we passed really well the first two sets we got in a little funk there the last set but she was serving tough and they had the big dog on the outside,” Dolson said. “I was glad we were able to get out of that when we did.”
Hested had 26 assists and three ace serves while Woods added three aces for Liberty High.

Junior Lauren Conrey had 10 kills for Waterloo West.

Liberty High              25  25  25

Waterloo West        21  22  23

Liberty High

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Lauren Roman 4-0-0, Olivia Slattery 9-0-3, Piper Koski 0-2-0, Sydney Woods 7-3-1, LeeAnn Potter 11-1-0, Hailey 1-3-0, Sam Harvey 1-0-0, Team 33-12-4.

Assists – Hailey Hested 26

Waterloo West

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Lauren Conrey 10-0-0, Jada Draine 8-0-2, Gabrielle Moore 3-1-1, Kaitlyn Meyer 1-0-1, Kaylisa Arndorfer 19-0-1, Christina Campbell 1-0-0, Team 42-1-5.

Assists – Christina Campbell 34, Breann Minikus 1.

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