Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

TIFFIN – The stellar volleyball prep career for Calia Clubb will be coming to an end sometime in the next few weeks.

A year after Covid-19 cost Clear Creek Amana an opportunity to compete in the postseason Clubb has a little bit of extra motivation to keep her senior season alive as long as possible.

“It’s really important to me to enjoy every moment out here but also to keep it going,” Club said. “With ending early last year it’s kind of our last kick where we are going to give it everything we have to take it to that next level.”

Clubb still has opportunities remaining.

The Clippers host their own tournament on Saturday and will play host to a Class 4A regional semifinal on October 21.

In the meantime, Clubb continues to soak it all in especially the days like she had Thursday on senior night against Vinton-Shellsburg.

Clubb hammered a match-high 23 kills as 4A No. 11 Clear Creek Amana clinched a WAMAC West Division title with a 21-25, 25-20, 25-11, 25-14 over the Vikings in Tiffin.

“After last year I definitely am trying to take it all in, I learned to take nothing for granted,” Clubb said. “That’s part of the drive is knowing that any game could be our last.”

Clubb and the Clippers bounced back from an opening set loss on Thursday to lock up its sixth WAMAC West Division win in as many tries.

Sophomore Bliss Beck added 14 kills for Clear Creek Amana (21-8, 6-0) as the Clippers won the West Division crown outright for the first time in more than 10 seasons after finishing in a three-way tie in 2019.

“We have always had a target on our backs in this conference so we tried not to talk about it a lot but we knew going into this season it was a super important goal for us,” Clubb said. “We didn’t want to put pressure on some of the younger girls who hadn’t had a lot of varsity experience yet and even some of our older players I think they just play better knowing there is no one coming after them.”

It wasn’t the start Clear Creek Amana was looking for in the opening set.

Vinton-Shellsburg (16-14, 3-3) closed the opening set on a 9-2 run to take an early advantage.

The Vikings led 7-3 early in the second set when Clear Creek Amana coach Jackie Clubb took a timeout.

“I definitely think we have a tendency to play down the first set, we’ve gone five with a lot of teams even though we were the better team,” Calia Clubb said. “We just collected ourselves and stayed calm and realized that if we played our way of playing that we would be fine.”

Clear Creek Amana took control of the second set with an 8-0 run that featured a pair of kills from sophomore Sam Schrage and gave the Clippers a 15-9 lead it would never give up.

The Clippers never slowed down.

“I think we really played better as a team the last three sets,” Beck said. “We were more of one solid group with all of us coming together.”

Clubb had six kills and Beck three kills in the opening-set loss.

In the final three sets the Clippers got contributions from all over the court.

Senior Morrgan Etscheidt had a kill in each of the final three sets.

Schrage had four of her six kills in the second set and sophomore Addison Gisleson had a kill in every set.

“As the match goes on they seem to get more confidence,” Clubb said of her teammates. “Hopefully as we keep going they can get it early but when they get that confidence its huge for us.”

Clear Creek Amana never trailed in a 25-11 win in the third set and trailed just once, at 4-3 in a 25-14 match-clinching win in the fourth.

Beck had five of her 14 kills in the final set.

“I really feed off of my teammates’ energy,” Beck said. “It’s so exciting when we all get going and that allows me to really get myself going.”

Clear Creek Amana  21  25  25  25

Vinton-Shellsburg    25  20  11  14

Clear Creek Amana (Kills-aces-blocks)

Jaclyn Pitcher 1-0-0, Teagen Bollers 1-1-0, Meg Berkland 0-2-0, Bliss Beck 14-0-1, Silvana Kabolo 0-0-2, Calia Clubb 23-1-1, Morgan Etscheidt 4-0-1, Sam Schrage 6-0-2, Ashlyn Pitcher 0-0-1, Addison Gisleson 4-1-0, Totals 53-5-7.

Assists – Jaclyn Pitcher 17, Kenadi Wood 16, Meg Berkland 2

Vinton-Shellsburg (Kills-aces-blocks)

Aly Smith 2-0-0, Samantha Walton 5-0-1, Alyssa Griffith 4-1-2, Brylee Bruce 1-0-2, Brynn Patterson 14-1-1, Peytin Clemensen 1-0-0, Totals 27-2-6.

Assists – Brylee Bruce 16, Brynn Patterson 2

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