Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

24 teams have secured spots at the state volleyball tournament.

The other 16 spots are up for grabs on Wednesday evening.

Teams in 5A, 4A and 3A locked up spots in the state tournament that is scheduled for October 30 – November 2 at Xtream Arena in Coralville with regional final wins on Tuesday.

On Wednesday the action shifts to the small schools with Classes 2A and 1A holding regional title games.

Here is a quick look at the Class 2A, Region 7 title game between West Branch and Denver

Class 2A, Region 7

West Branch (18-16) at No. 4 Denver (33-10)  

Where: Union High School in LaPorte City

When: Wednesday, 7 p.m.

Player to watch: Denver senior Jessica Gergen (6-0) has amassed 1,000 career kills and leads the Cyclones with 278 kills on .302 hitting this season to go with a team-high 83 blocks.

About the Bears: West Branch entered postseason play a game below .500 and had to play an opening-round game against Louisa-Muscatine but has played its best volleyball of the season over the past 10 days.

The Bears avenged a pair of regular season losses to River Valley Conference rival Regina with a five-set win over the Regals in the Region 7 quarterfinals and won a five-set thriller over 28-win Lisbon team on Monday.

West Branch gets its biggest test of the postseason on Wednesday against Denver in the regional final.

The Bears are seeking the fourth state tournament appearance in program history and first since 2015.

West Branch played a regular season schedule it believed would prepare it for these moments.

The Bears have 11 losses to ranked teams this season and two other losses to unranked Class 5A teams.

The key word for the West Branch attack this season has been balance.

Six players have at least 100 kills for the Bears led by senior Emily Coleman who has 247 kills on a team-best .303 hitting and leads the Bears with 55 blocks.

Seniors Kylie Pickett (169 kills), Alyse Klinkkammer (143 kills), Kya Montgomery (121 kills) and JaLynn Falco (115 kills) and sophomore Alyssa Vargason (108 kills) have all reached triple digit in kills.

Pickett (241 assists) and senior Claire Jarrett (528 assists) share the setting duties while junior libero Madelynn Falco has a team-high 340 digs.

About the Cyclones: Denver is seeking to continue the best run of success in program history with its fourth consecutive state tournament appearance.

The Cyclones have now won 30 or more games four years in a row and are 141-35 the past four seasons with three state tournament trips.

Denver was runner-up to Dike-New Hartford in 2020 and lost to the Wolverines in the 2021 semifinals before falling to Hinton in the 2A quarterfinals last season.

Gergen leads a Denver attack that features four players with at least 125 kills.

Sophomore Bailey Mullihan (5-11) has 246 kills while senior Elaina Hildebrandt has 197 kills and sophomore Grace Mullihan (5-11) has 127 kills.

5-foot-10 sophomore setter Channing Johnson directs the show for the Cyclones and ranks sixth in Class 2A with 888 assists and has 45 blocks.

The Cyclones are 17-10 against ranked teams this season with all but one of their 10 losses this season coming to top-five ranked teams.

Denver has lost four times to top-ranked and unbeaten Dike-New Hartford and twice to fifth-ranked Sumner-Fredericksburg.

What to watch: In its previous two matches West Branch has faced two of the most productive hitters in the state.

First West Branch had the task of dealing with Regina sophomore Reese Naeve who leads the state with 600 kills and on Monday with was Lisbon senior Ava Czarnecki who is fourth in Iowa with 540 kills this season.

Denver doesn’t have a player with those type of kill totals but the Cyclones have a top-notch one-two hitting punch with Gergen and Bailey Mullihan that will once again put the Bear back row to the test.

West Branch has been exceptional defensively in its back-to-back five-set wins over Regina and Lisbon.

The Bears limited Naeve to .266 hitting which was well below her .341 season average and Czarnecki had 23 kills on Monday but hit .303 which was below the .463 she averaged this season.

Back row play has been critical to the success for West Branch with junior Madelynn Falco collecting 22 digs against Regina and 30 in the semifinal win over Lisbon.

If West Branch is to slow the Cyclone attack it will need another stellar effort from its standout libero.

Breakdown: A postseason regular the past few seasons Denver faces an upstart West Branch team peaking at the right time and seeking to snap a seven-year state tournament drought.

West Branch has played the underdog role to perfection this postseason knocking off two teams that combined for 54 wins in the last two rounds.

This would be the biggest upset yet for the Bears who have three wins over ranked teams including a victory of 3A No. 12 Mid-Prairie.

As the underdog West Branch should be loose for this one with all the pressure on the higher seed.

If the Bears can play freely while getting a strong game from Coleman as well as its back row they can hang around with one of the best teams in Class 2A.

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