Iowa City West volleyball holds off Bettendorf rallies for trip to state

IOWA CITY — There's a certain level of mental fortitude it takes just to finish off an Iowa high school volleyball postseason victory. The level of competition and the stakes make getting distracted easy in many situations, for many athletes.

It takes a whole other level of mental fortitude to withstand three separate body blows from your opponent, dust it off and finish them off when it matters.

On Monday night in Iowa City, Class 5A No. 8 Iowa City West was one set away, at 2-0, from advancing to the state tournament again. But No. 9 Bettendorf, state champions in 2012 and '13, and state runners-up the last two years, fought off elimination twice, forcing the decisive fifth set. Then, in that final set, the Women of Troy had match point at 14-9. The Bulldogs rallied with five straight, to tie it at 14-all.

Again, West was faced with letting it all slip through their fingers. Instead of wilting under that pressure, the Women of Troy rose to it, and punched their ticket to the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids for the state tournament with a 3-2 (25-23, 25-16, 24-26, 24-26, 16-14) regional final victory.

'We got a little tight tonight, there's no doubt about it. I think our seniors felt a little pressure (with) so much expected of them. It was like, 'We can't let this happen,'' West head coach Randy Dolson said. 'We just had enough good passes there at the end. I'll admit it, we're fortunate. We survived and advanced.

'We had to tighten things up, and we tightened them up just enough.'

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Dolson said inconsistency was the main issue in the two sets West dropped. Each time it looked like the Women of Troy were going to put the Bulldogs away in sets 3 and 4, Bettendorf fought them off behind outside hitter Claire Leonard.

In those moments, before the decisive fifth set, Dolson said it was a group effort to rally around each other and wipe those frustrations away.

Then, when it was money time, West turned to their lone freshman. The final set was tied, 7-7, and Rylee Fay hadn't seen the court much, if at all, all night. All she did was go in to serve and rattle off four points in a row to build West a cushion it would ultimately need.

Why a freshman, in that moment? Because she was ready.

'She's proven it in practice. She's a tough kid. She's played a lot of volleyball, and she showed us she's got a lot of mental toughness,' Dolson said. 'She hadn't been off the bench all night, hasn't played a whole lot (this year). We knew she has a very nice, tough serve. We had confidence in her, and man, she came through.'

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West exorcised a proverbial demon in beating Bettendorf to advance to the state tournament. Each of the last two years, the Women of Troy have advanced to state and drawn the Bulldogs in the quarterfinals. Both times, Bettendorf ended West's season.

Dolson and his team know well the tradition Diane Lichtenberg and her Bulldog group have built, but couldn't deny it felt good to shake them after back-to-back years of the opposite.

'(Bettendorf has) been a thorn in these guys for a while,' Dolson said. '(The girls) decided they were going to play for each other tonight. That was the big theme for the week.

'It really meant a lot to them to do this together, and on our court.'

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