Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – The last time Clear Creek Amana reached the state title game it took late surges to win five-set thrillers in both the 2022 quarterfinal and semifinal rounds.

Clear Creek Amana is headed back to the 4A title match and this time the Clippers are making it look easy.

Third-ranked Clear Creek Amana posted its second consecutive state tournament sweep on Wednesday, rolling past second-ranked Davenport Assumption 25-17, 25-22, 25-12 in a Class 4A semifinal at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“My assistant coach and I talked about it early in the year that 4A is a wide open game with all the movement that happened so we knew that we were going to be part of the conversation,” Clear Creek Amana coach Jackie Clubb said. “In October you want to be playing your best ball so we knew we needed to be at our best in October and so far, so good.”

Junior Julia Schlarbaum hammered a match-high 24 kills on Wednesday and senior Bailey Simpson added nine kills as Clear Creek Amana (35-6) returned to the state title match for the first time since 2022 with a second consecutive dominating performance.

Clear Creek Amana hit .381 in the semifinal win over last year’s 3A champion Davenport Assumption (26-7), added 14 blocks and finished with a 44-32 edge in total kills.

In two state tournament wins this week the Clippers have allowed more than 18 points in a set just once and have 20 more kills than their two opponents.

“I just feel like as a team we have worked so well during these two matches at state,” Clear Creek Amana senior setter Payton Curtin said. “Attitudes are great, everyone is just so supportive of one another, we know mistakes are going to happen but you just have to put it behind you.”

Clear Creek Amana will be seeking its first state title when it faces top-ranked Norwalk (32-6) in the 4A title game on Thursday at 12:15 p.m.

Norwalk swept fourth-ranked Western Dubuque in the other 4A semifinal on Wednesday.

“I’m just looking forward to being together as a team one more time,” Curtin said. “It’s a big thing and I’m really excited for it.”

Clear Creek Amana followed up an impressive opening-round sweep of defending runner-up Sioux Center on Monday evening with an even better performance on Wednesday.

The Clippers hit .324 in a 25-17 win in the opening set to grab the early momentum.

It was a late surge in the second set that swung the tide fully to the Clipper bench.

Trailing 15-9 in the second set Clear Creek Amana rattled off eight consecutive points to take a 17-15 lead.

The eight-point Clipper run started with a Haydin Wauters kill, featured three consecutive kills by Schlarbaum and a Kendall Ronnfeldt ace serve.

“That’s kind of state volleyball, people go on runs and the momentum changes and you just do your best to stay in it knowing you can play five sets,” Clubb said. “It doesn’t matter what you are ranked coming in anything can happen.”

Davenport Assumption tied the second set at 18-18 but Clear Creek Amana scored the next three points and never trailed again.

“We were just trying to stay composed and trust each other and we know it will work out,” Schlarbaum said.

Clear Creek Amana snapped a 2-2 tie in the third set with a 10-1 run and never let the Knights get closer than six points the rest of the way.

The Clippers hit .471 in the third set as Schlarbaum had 10 of her match-high 24 kills in the final set.

“We are not overcome, we aren’t overcome,” Clubb said. “We had to overcome some things at the beginning of the year and after that we realized we could overcome pretty much anything.”

Delaney Vaske finished with seven kills and six blocks for the Clippers and Curtin had 35 assists and a team-high 13 digs.

Ronnfeldt added 11 digs and an ace serve.

“We work on defense a lot at practice,” Curtin said. “That’s a big thing we work on every day at practice. that’s a big part of our game.”

Davenport Assumption        17  22  12

Clear Creek Amana              25  25  25

Davenport Assumption (Kills-aces-blocks)

Taylor Camarena 3-0-1, Zoe Cinadr 7-0-1, Emmy Burkhart 0-3-0, Natalie Depoorter 4-0-2, Piper Hodge 0-1-0, Ruby Stevens 1-0-4, Piper Peterson 7-0-0, Belle Cotton 10-0-2, Totals 32-4-10.

Assists – Natalie Depoorter 25, Kinsley Needham 2, Piper Hodge 2, Emmy Burkhart 1, Ruby Stevens 1, Belle Cotton 1

Clear Creek Amana (Kills-aces-blocks)

Bella Behrens 0-1-0, Kendall Ronnfeldt 0-1-0, Bailey Simpson 9-0-0, Julia Schlarbaum 24-1-3, Payton Curtin 1-0-2, Haydin Wauters 3-0-1, Delaney Vaske 7-0-6, Payson Ellard 0-0-2, Totals 44-3-14.

Assists – Payton Curtin 35, Bella Behrens 3, Kendall Ronnfeldt 3, Bailey Simpson 1, Julia Schlarbaum 1

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