Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST LIBERTY – A single sequence early in the third set of the Class 2A, Region 8 title game between Wilton and West Branch seemed to provide a perfect summary of the match.

Wilton standout Kelsey Drake hammered a rocket off a kill attempt that West Branch senior Jaclyn Bloem dug producing a sound like a firecracker.

As the Bears sent the ball back over Wilton went right back to Drake who produced a cross-court kill.

That was the match in a nutshell – No. 14 West Branch kept battling, kept clawing back but it was simply too much Drake for the Bears to overcome.

“I’m just proud of the way our girls fought,” West Branch coach Trystin Shawver said. “Being a first-year coach I had no idea what to expect and our girls battled but Wilton is a phenomenal team.”

Drake hammered 26 kills, including 21 in the final two sets, to lift second-ranked Wilton (32-3) to a 25-10, 25-20, 25-17 sweep of West Branch on Wednesday in West Liberty.

The win sends Wilton to the state tournament for the third consecutive season where it will face Van Meter (19-3) in a 2A quarterfinal on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. at Alliant Energy PowerHouse in Cedar Rapids.

“I came to hit,” Drake said. “We’ve been working on it all week at practice, just staying aggressive and it really clicked tonight. It felt good.”

The Beavers used late surges in all three sets to down West Branch for the third time in three meetings this season.

West Branch closed the season (20-13) and had its season end with a loss to Wilton for the third consecutive season, the last two coming in regional finals.

“Being a senior it’s a great way to end because in past years getting bumped out second or third round is defeating for sure,” West Branch senior Lexie Peak said. “To know that we were just one step shy is a good feeling.”
Wilton closed the opening set on a 17-3 run to break open a one-point lead on its way to a 25-10 win.

West Branch had just three kills in the opening set but quickly regrouped and settled into a groove in the second.

“We came out super tight and nervous and after that we realized we had nothing to lose,” Peak said. “We wanted to come out and show what we were made of.”

West Branch led 3-1 in the second after back-to-back ace serves by Lexi Klinkkammer and led 10-8 after a Nicki Henson ace.

“We came out and we were very tight and maybe the girls were a little doubtful but once we started doing some things well the girls saw we could play with them,” Shawver said. “They are a good team but I think we saw we could play with them.”

West Branch took its final lead at 16-15 on a Beaver hitting error and was even at 17 following a Delaynie Luneckas kill but Wilton scored the next three points to take a 20-17 lead.

A kill by senior Lila Krall cut the lead to 20-18 but Drake had three kills during a 6-2 Beaver run to close the set.

After collecting five kills in the opening set, Drake had 10 in the second and closed with 11 in the third as Wilton completed the sweep.

“This far along the line you are going to get everybody’s best game,” Shawver said. “Everybody wants to show up, everybody is ready to ball out and she did that.”

Drake kills accounted for seven of the first 13 points for Wilton as the Beavers opened up an early 13-8 lead in the third set.

“Her best is she just loves to swing, she loves that big swing, she has great hangtime and she just snaps the ball,” Wilton coach Brenda Grunder said of Drake. “She brings a lot of energy to our team when she does that. She is our go-to with that big swing.”

Carly Puffer added nine kills for Wilton while setter Ella Caffery had seven for the Beavers.

Luneckas and Bloem each had five kills for West Branch while Klinkkammer had four kills and three ace serves.
“We I think we were tremendously better tonight than the first times against them,” Peak said. “The first game was rough, this game after the first set when we got rolling we were good.”

Wilton                        25  25  25

West Branch            10  20  17

West Branch (Kills-aces-blocks)

Nicki Henson 0-1-0, Lila Krall 1-1-1, Lexi Klinkkammer 4-3-0, Delaynie Luneckas 5-0-1, Jaclyn Bloem 5-0-2, Sophia Kouba 0-1-0, Team 15-6-4.

Assists – Nicki Henson 11

Wilton (Kills-aces-blocks)

Kelsey Drake 26-2-1, Taylor Drayfahl 0-1-0, Ella Caffery 7-1-0, Alexa Garvin 5-1-0, Carly Puffer 9-0-2, Kaylee Coss 1-0-0, Team 48-5-3

Assists – Ella Caffery 33

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