Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

IOWA CITY – West High didn’t actually trail the entire match in the annual Battle for the Spike with City High on Thursday.

Though it sure felt that way.

“It definitely felt like we were playing from behind all night,” West High junior setter Lila Eastvold said.

When it mattered most West High found itself on top.

Class 5A ninth-ranked West High (17-4) battled all the way back from a two-set deficit to outlast City High 15-25, 24-26, 25-19, 25-23, 15-9 in a five-set thriller in front of a boisterous crowd at City High.

It was the second consecutive five-set win for West High in the Battle for the Spike series after the Trojans held off City High last season at West High.

“It’s awesome,” West High junior Sophia Austen said. “Reverse sweeping them there is no better feeling. It feels amazing.”

Austen had 17 kills and sophomore Taylor Otte added 12 kills as West High dug itself out of hole after hole on Thursday.

City High (8-14) roared to a 25-15 win in the opening behind three early kills from junior Hattie Galloway, closing an impressive opening-set win with a 7-2 run.

The Little Hawks then rallied from a 21-17 deficit late in the second set to seemingly take control of the match.

City High fought off set point at 24-23 and scored the final three points of a 26-24 second set win on West High errors.

“It was definitely not our best tonight, we had to really focus on our side of the net and our errors to really minimize to pull out the win in the end,” first-year West High coach Jaedynn Evans said. “It showed a lot of grit that we could get a win even after being down.”

West High scored the final four points of a 25-19 win in the third set and rallied late in the fourth set to force a decisive fifth set.

City High led 20-18 and 21-20 in the fourth set before the Trojans surged late.

“We have a lot of young players that haven’t played in something like this especially with the crowd and we were telling them how much confidence we have in them and that they can do this and they are amazing volleyball players,” Evans said. “We were really putting the confidence back on them so that they regained confidence back in themselves to really pick it up.”

Eastvold started the late rally with a kill and freshman Cyan Blommer had a kill and Austen added an ace serve in a 4-0 spurt that gave West High a 24-21 lead it wouldn’t give up.

“It speaks a lot how you play when you aren’t at your best,” Austen said. “That speaks a lot about your character as a team and I think we learned a lot tonight especially playing in this type of atmosphere but we adjusted as the game went on and I thought our underclassmen played amazing.”

City High jumped to a 4-1 lead in the fifth set but West High had one final rally.

The Trojans pulled even at 6-all on a Blommer kill and took the lead for good at 10-9 on a kill by Austen.

The junior Iowa State commit had four kills in each of the first four sets and her first kill in the fifth ignited a 6-0 Trojan run to close the match.

“I just think we were more confident,” Austen said. “We settled in. Early we were kind of frantic but as the game went on we got better.”

Otte had one of her two fifth-set kills during the 6-0 West High run that closed out the match.

“We took a deep breath and focused on what we could control which is our serving and our communication,” Eastvold said. “It worked out.”

Blommer finished with eight kills while fellow freshman Josephine Austen had seven kills and Audrey Small had six for the Trojans.

“Once we got comfortable we were o.k.,” Austen said. “This is one of those situations you can’t describe to someone who hasn’t played in it you just have to learn and our girls did a great job tonight.”

Galloway was dynamite for City High finished with a match-high 19 kills and two blocks while Maeve Obermueller had 10 kills and Kaitlin Loria had nine.

West High      15  24  25  25  15

City High       25  26  19  23   9

City High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Hazel Schluckebier 3-1-0, Maeve Obermueller 10-2-0, Jessi Kucera 0-3-0, Halle Larew 4-0-2, Elizabeth Nolte 3-0-0, Amilia Mendoza 0-1-0, Kaitlin Loria 9-3-0, Hattie Galloway 19-1-2, Totals 48-11-4.

Assists – Hazel Schluckebier 32, Amilia Mendoza 2

West High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Cyan Blommer 8-0-1, Lila Eastvold 5-1-1, Taylor Otte 12-2-0, Sophia Austen 17-2-1, Audrey Small 6-0-1, Josephine Austen 7-1-1, Totals 55-6-5.

Assists – Lila Eastvold 46, Izzie McDonald 2

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