Bettendorf survives 5-set semifinal against Johnston

CEDAR RAPIDS – The Bettendorf volleyball team hadn't really been tested in more than a year.

Not like Thursday, anyway.

The Class 5A No. 1 and two-time defending state champion Bulldogs entered the state semifinals against Johnston riding a 46-match win streak, and hadn't gone five sets all season. But it took all five and then some to dispatch the Dragons and advance to the finals, 3-2 (23-25, 25-19, 25-19, 20-25, 16-14).

'That was quite a match,” said Bettendorf Coach Diane Lichtenberg. 'There were just some awesome rallies on both sides of the net, and we knew we had to work hard for every single point. There were no easy points here.”

The Bulldogs trailed, 13-11, in the decisive fifth set, and the streak and season looked all but finished.

Johnston's Hayley Dotseth had a match-high 22 kills (and a tournament-high 41 through the semis), and Bettendorf had difficulty defending her when she got a good swing at the ball. But the Bulldogs are No. 1 and haven't lost since October 2013 for a reason.

A timeout by Lichtenberg was enough to calm her players and reset their focus for the final five points they needed.

'That was very stressful. We hadn't been brought to five games at all this year, so it was definitely a hard match to pull off,” said Bulldogs outside hitter Danielle Pennington, who led Bettendorf with 13 kills and went 16 of 18 on serves. 'She told us to take a deep breath, that it was OK and we had it. We'd made runs before and came back. We all took a deep breath and knew it was do-or-die for both teams.”

For as relieving and euphoric as it was for Bettendorf, the result was equally as heartbreaking for Johnston, which committed 28 errors throughout the match. Maybe the more important stat was on serves, in which Bettendorf converted 103 of 109, compared to Johnston at 86 of 102.

The combination of the errors and playing the best team in Class 5A was too much for the Dragons to overcome. Still, Johnston Coach Rick Brooks lauded his girls' effort and wasn't about to take any shame away from pushing Bettendorf farther than any team had in so long.

'I think that's what the state tournament is all about, matches like that,” Brooks said. 'It's a great team (we were) playing. They kept us from closing it out. We had been siding out pretty good in the fourth and fifth set, unfortunately we just weren't able to take our turn with it (at the end). That probably wasn't (even) the deal. The missed serves was probably the bigger deal.”

Even though it caused some stress, the five-set test taught the Bulldogs something about themselves and what they'd have to three-peat.

Lichtenberg said it was a relief as much as anything to close out Johnston, and that it will propel them forward. Pennington took it a step further, saying the pressure placed on them from the start of the season has manifested itself at the state tournament.

Knowing they have the target on their backs brought them even closer together, and motivated them as much as anything could.

'We have all the pressure on us,” Pennington said. 'A lot of people are against us. We're fighting as hard as we can, showing them we should be here.

'(Johnston) showed us how to work harder because we haven't worked that hard all season.”

Bettendorf will take on No. 2 Ankeny Centennial in the state championship match on Friday at 10 a.m.

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