Clear Creek Amana outlasts Marion in Class 4A state volleyball quarterfinal doozy

CORALVILLE — The winningest team in Clear Creek Amana volleyball history padded its school record in that department Monday night

Most importantly, it moved on to the state volleyball semifinals.

The Clippers overcame a pair of set deficits, rolling to an early lead in the decisive fifth and beating Marion in a marvelous Class 4A quarterfinal at Xtream Arena.

The official match numbers were 19-25, 25-17, 23-25, 25-21 and 15-8. The official victory total for CCA is 33.

“We’ve got two more wins to get,” said Clear Creek Amana Coach Jackie Clubb. “We’ve got to rest, recover and get ready for North Scott.”

That’ll be the semifinal opponent for the Clippers (33-10) at noon Wednesday. North Scott won the regular-season encounter between the schools in two straight games, but this match proved that’s not necessarily relevant.

Marion (35-7) beat CCA two straight to end the regular season and win the Wamac Conference Tournament.

“I think we were just more prepared tonight,” said outside hitter Addison Gisleson, whose back-to-back kills ended this marathon. “It’s unbelievable. I never expected this to happen to us. But we went into today feeling amazing, that we could do it. We all just worked together and played our game.”

“I knew that it would be a tough match coming in here. We knew that,” said Marion Coach Roxanne Paulsen. “When we saw them at the conference tournament, I fully expected that to be a three-setter, and it wasn’t. It went two. But we knew that these guys could play, that they could hit, they’ve got some size, and they’re scrappy. They just outlasted us there in a couple of games.”

Third-ranked Marion led the first game virtually the entire way and moved to a 6-3 lead in game two. But No. 8 Clear Creek Amana recovered thanks to kills from Giselson, Sam Schrage, Bliss Beck (a Drake commit) and freshman Averie Lower.

Gisleson’s kill ended the game.

Peyton Johnson’s kill ended the third game in Marion’s favor, and the Wolves again built a lead in Game 4, only to have CCA re-rally to force a winner-take-all situation. Marion got the first point of Game 5, but Clear Creek Amana picked up the next seven, and Marion never recovered.

“I thought we did a great job spreading around our sets and just being able to use all of our people on the floor,” Beck said. “Because it’s really hard for a defense to defend all six people on the court versus just three. So being able to have that multi threat really helped us.”

“In volleyball, when one team has momentum, it’s hard to get it back,” Johnson said. “We tried our hardest to get it back, but it was hard.”

Lower led the Clippers with 19 kills, followed by Beck’s 12. This is CCA’s first state tournament appearance since 2014.

Johnson had 21 kills and Michaela Goad 17 for Marion, which was denied a second consecutive trip to the 4A semis. Avery Van Hook had a wonderful game for the Wolves with a triple-double of 12 kills, 18 digs and a match-high 44 assists.

“We felt like we had a shot to go back to the semifinals, to go further than that,” she said. “I hope the returnees use that as motivation next season. Get back here and finish it out for us.”

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