Sioux Center puts up a road block on No. 1 Des Moines Christian’s state volleyball title hopes

CORALVILLE — Fourth-ranked Sioux Center collected a whopping 21 blocks, won the last two sets in “overtime” and knocked off No. 1 Des Moines Christian in a Class 3A semifinal at the state volleyball tournament Wednesday afternoon at Xtream Arena.

Scores were 22-25, 25-20, 30-28 and 26-24.

“Game 3 was huge for us,” libero Tatum Schmalbeck said. “It was huge for momentum, and for confidence.”

Sioux Center (32-3) will make its championship-match debut at 2:30 Thursday afternoon against No. 2 Davenport Assumption (32-7), which swept No. 3 Mount Vernon.

“We worked really hard to get here,” Reagan Jansen said. “Our mascot is Warriors, and every single point, every match, that’s what we are. We never give up and can always come back.”

Des Moines Christian (46-6) rallied from a 22-19 deficit to take a 24-23 lead in Game 3, the first of three set points. But the Warriors gained the advantage at 27-26 on Willow Bleeker’s block.

Another block, by Makenna Walhof and Bleeker, ended the set.

Walhof had 11 assisted blocks, an all-time, all-class tournament record. Each assisted block counts as half of a total block, and Walhof had 6 1/2 of those.

A six-point run in Game 4 gave Sioux Center a 19-10 lead. DMC rallied for leads of 22-21 and 23-22, but the Warriors scored four of the last five points, all on kills, two by Margo Schuiteman.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com