Janesville sweeps Lisbon out of 1A tournament

CENTRAL CITY -- There are freshmen. And there are freshmen of impact.

Janesville has the latter.

Ninth-graders Kendyl Sorge and Shelby Schnurstein combined for 19 kills as sixth-ranked Janesville swept No. 11 Lisbon, 25-20, 25-8, 25-22, in a Class 1A regional volleyball semifinal Friday night at Central City High School.

"They're freshmen. They're going to make their share of mistakes," said Janesville Coach Shelly Sorensen. "But they had a lot of opportunities to come through, and they took advantage of them."

Janesville (28-10), which made its state-tournament debut last year (the Wildcats advanced to the championship match before falling to Tripoli), is a match away from returning to Cedar Rapids.

The Wildcats will face No. 7 Bellevue Marquette (31-4) in a regional final Tuesday at Manchester.

Lisbon retired at 26-9. The Lions had windows of opportunity in the first and third sets, but couldn't follow through.

"We just didn't finish," said Lions Coach Lance Kamous. "We knew we had to limit their runs. If the other team gets one or two points, that's fine, that's volleyball. But when we had to get a sideout, we couldn't do it."

The Lions battled back from a horrid start -- they committed five hitting errors as Janesville shot to a 9-3 lead -- to take an 18-17 advantage in the opening set.

But the Wildcats scored the next six points, and that surge carried into a Game 2 rout.

Lisbon's other chance came in the finale. Melissa Alger pounded two kills and tipped another in a 5-1 run that put the Lions in front, 20-18. But again, the Wildcats had the most at the end when they needed it. Schnurstein had a pair of kills in a five-point run that put Janesville up 23-20.

McKenna Kilburg's ace brought the Lions within 23-22, but the Wildcats scored the final two points to advance.

Janesville collected 41 kills, compared to 20 for Lisbon. Sorge finished with 11, Schnurstein with eight.

Freshmen of impact.

"We were able to mix it up," Sorensen said. "We're not a one-man team. A lot of different people came through at big times."

Alger collected nine kills for Lisbon. She is one of eight Lions that played their final match.

"They put in a lot of work to move this program forward," Kamous said. "There's not much I can say to console them. They're very disappointed."

Lisbon converted 52 serves without an error. Emily Gasper served three of the Lions' 10 aces.

Emily Ruth collected eight kills and four aces for the Wildcats.

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