Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

NORTH LIBERTY – The lineup for Class 5A tenth-ranked Liberty High is loaded with four-year starters.

Even after four years of sharing the court the more those Liberty High seniors player together the better they seem to get.

Liberty High has gone from 15 wins in 2024 to 24 wins a year ago and is off to a 15-4 start this season.

The longer the Lightning seniors have been together the better they get.

“It’s just a lot of trust in each other,” Liberty High senior Sydney Van Heukelom said. “Knowing each other’s tendencies, knowing what to expect from each person and how to adjust to one another gets better with time and those things are still getting better.”

On Tuesday as has been the case for years the longer Liberty High played the better the Lightning seemed to perform.

Liberty High overcame a slow start in the opening set to post a 25-16, 25-16, 25-15 sweep of Cedar Rapids Xavier (7-6, 1-2 MVC) in a Mississippi Valley Conference Mississippi Division contest in North Liberty.

“I think every single time we step on the court together we get better,” Liberty High senior Hadley Miller said. “That’s exciting because we know we can still make improvements.”

Miller had 10 of her team-high 13 kills over the final two sets as Liberty High got rolling on Tuesday.

Senior Ellie Wilson added 10 kills, Van Heukelom had nine and senior Brooklyn Wheeler had six kills as Liberty High improved to 4-0 in MVC Divisional matches.

“I think we really talked better and our serve receive got better,” Miller said. “As the match went on we got into our groove. We played really slow at the start but we got going.”

After the two teams played to a 15-15 tie in the opening set Liberty High finished with a flurry to take the momentum.

Liberty High closed the match on a 10-1 run that featured three kills and a block from Van Heukelom and a pair of Wheeler kills.

“I feel like we really focused on controlling our side and what we could control,” Van Heukelom said. “At the beginning we were just going with the flow a little bit but the second and third especially we did a better job of setting the pace and playing our game.”

The final two sets were all Lightning nearly from the outset.

Liberty High jumped to a 16-9 lead in the second set and rolled to a 25-16 win.

The Lightning never trailed in the third set building an early 13-4 advantage.

“We always start a little slow, I always joke with that with the girls just saying, ‘can we put the pedal to the metal a little earlier’,” Liberty High coach Jessia Hauptmann said. “That’s just how they do it, we don’t worry too much. We focus on our serve receive and just being consistent there and as the match goes on our offense works because our serve receive gets better and better.”

The win on Tuesday continued a strong stretch for Liberty High which has won seven of its last eight matches.

Liberty High went 4-1 at the West High Invitational on Saturday with three wins over ranked teams.

“A lot of these girls have played for four years on varsity so that leadership has kind of developed and I think their confidence has developed also,” Hauptmann said. “They are exceeding my expectations. They are really great teammates too and I think that shows in their confidence. They are confident with who they are playing next too.”

Liberty High finished with a 41-25 edge in kills on Tuesday behind the 13 from Miller and 10 from Wilson.

Clare Gordon had three of the Lightning’s nine ace serves and Van Heukelom added four blocks.

Freshman Delaney Joens had 13 kills to lead Cedar Rapids Xavier.

“100 percent we continue to improve every day,” Van Heukelom said. “We still have so much room to grow but even compared to our first game this season I feel like we have gotten so much better and how we play together and our chemistry on the court has gotten better too. I still think we have so much room to grow.”

CR Xavier                  16  16  15

Liberty High              25  25  25

Cedar Rapids Xavier (Kills-aces-blocks)

Anna Deutmeyer 7-3-0, Ava Young 0-1-0, Maddie Ireland 3-0-0, Gianna Pino 2-0-0, Delaney Joens 13-0-0, Totals 25-4-0.

Assists – Maddie Ireland 19, Caylin Miller 2

Liberty High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Edie Miller 0-2-0, Hailey Hegland 1-0-1, Hadley Miller 13-2-0, Veda Smith 1-0-0, Norah Willey 0-1-0, Autumn Allen 0-1-0, Ellie Wilson 10-0-0, Clare Gordon 0-3-0, Ava Meidlinger 1-0-0, Sydney Van Heukelom 9-0-4, Brooklyn Wheeler 6-0-1, Totals 41-9-6.

Assists – Norah Willey 17, Hadley Miller 7, Kaylin Davis 5, Edie Miller 4

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