Clear Creek-Amana moves on to state

MARENGO – There are your Western Christians, your Dike-New Hartfords, your Janesvilles. Clear Creek-Amana isn't one of those schools.

This will be the first trip to the state tournament for the Clippers since 1999. They have few expectations, other than to have fun.

'Play our best,” said CC-A's Natalie Brimeyer, after her team's three-set victory over Cedar Rapids Xavier in a Class 4A regional final Tuesday night. 'We haven't been to state. Other teams go to state every year and have a lot of expectations. Get second place and things like that. Our goal is just to do our best. Play Clear Creek-Amana volleyball.”

If they do that, they should be fine. The fifth-ranked Clippers (26-9) are tall, deep and talented, which proved too much for Xavier (18-19).

The Saints got off to a strong start, taking a 6-1 lead in the first set. CC-A Coach Jackie Clubb called timeout, settled down her obviously nervous team, and away they went.

'The message was to get the momentum back on our side,” Clubb said. 'I think everyone's adrenalin was running. We needed to get calmed down and get settled in, play our game.”

A Dacia Lipkea gave CC-A a 25-16 first-set victory. The Clippers never trailed in the 25-23 second set, though, obviously, it was tight the entire way.

Same thing for the third set. A kill by senior Kayla Torson gave Xavier its first lead since way back early in the first, 15-13, and the Saints led by a 17-15 margin.

But Clear Creek-Amana roared back with the next six points to grab the match by the throat. Alyssa Weldon had a kill at match point, and that was it.

The Clippers are in the state tournament.

'We've worked hard for a long time,” said Brimeyer, a Division II Truman State recruit. 'You woke up this morning, and it's game day. You are excited, but at the same time, you are nervous. You're preparing all day, thinking we've seen film on them, we've watched everything about what they're going to do. They know what we're going to do. All sorts of things like that.

'We started out slow, and that's something that we've needed to work on. Coach said ‘You know we can't start out slow. This our game, so start out on top. Here we go.' She told us to step up a little and play our game, play relaxed, throw it out there and have fun.”

It wasn't so fun for Xavier, though Coach Katie Bailey said she and her team had no regrets.

'I think we hit a little funk there, then we kind of snapped out of it,” she said. 'Unfortunately we dug ourselves too deep of a hole there. But they gave it their all, and that's all you can really ask for.”

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