Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – The annual regular season meeting between City High and West High is played for the travelling Spike Trophy that resides for the year with the winner.

There was a little more on the line for the two cross-town rivals on Tuesday.

Class 5A No. 14 City High advanced to the Region 4 title game with its second win of the season over West High, a 25-10, 25-20, 25-22 sweep in a regional semifinal at City High.

“Of course when you are playing against West it gets you excited but it was more than just a game against our rival tonight because our goal is to get to state,” City High senior Kelsey Law said. “That’s the biggest thing from tonight is getting closer to state.”

Law had a match-high 19 kills and Alia Vanderhoef added eight as City High (17-14) moved within one win its first state tournament appearance since 2014.

City High will play at sixth-ranked West Des Moines Dowling (31-11) in the Region 4 title game on Monday at 7 p.m.

“The finals are whoever is going to show up to play that night,” City High head coach Tricia Carty said. “That’s why we play the game. If we can go out and execute the way we are capable of playing I think we can be really competitive with anyone. We are going to play hard and see where the ball lands.”

In order to earn a shot at a regional final City High had to get past its biggest rival for the second time this season.

That proved to be no problem for the Little Hawks on Tuesday.

City High controlled the match from the outset, finishing with a 40-16 edge in kills over West High (6-22) in its second sweep of the season of the Women of Troy.

“The whole City-West rivalry gets you pumped up and ready to play,” Law said. “It feels good to win but it feels really good to be one game closer to state.”

City High made a statement early jumping to a 7-1 lead in the opening set.

Senior Mia Loughran had three consecutive ace serves during a 5-0 City High burst to open the match.

City High finished with nine aces in the match to just two for West High.

“One of our three keys to success is if we can serve really tough to the person that we want,” Carty said. “I was happy to see that we could execute that tonight because that makes it a lot easier for us on defense.”

While City High was setting the tone early with aggressive serving Law provided the offense.

The senior had nine of her match-high 19 kills in the opening set.

“Before this game we talked about treating it like any other match,” Law said. “We had to take it one point at a time.

City High never trailed in a 25-20 win in the second set but had to rally in the third to complete the sweep.

West High led 14-12 but City High scored the next four points and the Women of Troy would never lead again.

West High tied the score at 16-all but City High made the plays late as Cecilia Aldrich-Ingram had a pair of kills and Keli Potter had an ace serve during a 4-0 burst that put the Little Hawks up

“It’s always hard when you have that first-round bye and you are off for a while so I was really happy with how we came out strong right away,” Carty said. “That was one of our goals so I was very pleased to see us come out strong.”

City High now turns its attention to West Des Moines Dowling. The Maroons advanced to the final with a sweep of Des Moines Roosevelt on Tuesday.

“I know they are a strong team and they are going to be tough,” Law said. “I think we have improved a lot throughout the season and I think if we are on we can play with them but it will be a tough match.”

City High        25  25  25

West High     10  20  22

City High

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Lindsey Bolton 3-1-0, Cecilia Aldrich-Ingram 5-0-0, Maya Morales 1-2-0, Joslyn Becker 4-0-1, Kelsey Law 19-0-0, Alia Vanderhoef 8-0-1, Mia Loughran 0-3-0, Emma Nugent 0-2-0, Keli Potter 0-1-0, Team 40-9-2.

Assists – Lindsey Bolton 30

West High

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Natalie Young 5-0-2, Emma Dunlap 2-0-2, Misha Canin 3-0-0, Mayowa Dokun 2-0-2, Ryann Culver 0-2-0, Raina Pfeifer 2-0-0, McKenna Proud 2-0-1, Team 16-2-7.

Assists – Emma Dunlap 7

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