Newcomer Sidney reaches the 1A final

CEDAR RAPIDS - This has developed into one remarkable debut.

Fourth-ranked Sidney continued to look like anything but the timid rookie, sweeping No. 1 Central Lyon, 26-24, 25-20, 25-21, in a Class 1A semifinal at the state volleyball tournament Thursday night at the U.S. Cellular Center.

'It's a dream come true,” said Lexy Larsen, who posted 22 kills. 'I've been dreaming about this since first grade. We knew we had people coming up that were going to be good, and we were going to have a shot.”

The Cowgirls (34-1) won their 30th consecutive match and will face No. 3 Janesville (26-14) for the championship at 7 p.m. Friday.

And right now, anything seems possible.

'I told the girls we were going to make it here,” said Coach Amy McClintock. 'And once we got here, the goal was to win (matches).”

It's a far cry to where this program was. Four years ago, Sidney won one match. Then, when Larsen and her classmates arrived as freshmen, just five wins.

McClintock took the reins last year and the Cowgirls advanced to 16-13. They made their state-tournament debut with a first-round sweep of Springville on Wednesday, then followed it with another masterpiece Thursday.

'A lot of these girls play AAU and club volleyball,” McClintock said. 'Even though this was their first trip here, I don't think they were wide-eyed.”

Setter Mackenzie Daffer said, 'We knew we could do a lot this year. We had some strong freshmen coming in, and there were a lot of things we could do.”

The Cowgirls overcame a 20-18 deficit in the first set, then dug out of an 18-15 hole in the finale with eight straight points. Larsen smacked four kills in that surge.

Freshman Camryn McClintock added 14 kills, and Daffer distributed 36 assists.

Mattie Knobloch paced Central Lyon (33-6) with 11 kills.

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