After last season’s unexpected volleyball run, Clear Creek Amana will sneak up on nobody

TIFFIN — Who saw that coming?

First, a sweep of West Delaware — on the road — in the regional finals. Then came upset wins over Marion and North Scott at the state tournament.

Clear Creek Amana had arrived on high school volleyball scene.

“Last year’s run, that was the best time I’ve ever had,” Sam Schrage said.

That unlikely run, all the way to the Class 4A championship match before a four-set end to Cedar Rapids Xavier, changes everything.

So does a long list of returners.

Upstart? Underdog? Cinderella?

Forget that. Don’t be surprised if the Clippers open the 2023 season as the top-ranked team in 4A.

“We have a huge target on our back, but we look at it as a privilege that people look at us this way,” CCA Coach Jackie Clubb said during the team’s preseason camp last week.

“We’re going to enjoy it. We’re focused, and we’re motivated.”

The Clippers (34-11 last season) return all seven starters, including 2022 4A first-team all-stater Bliss Beck, a Drake University recruit, and second-teamer Meg Berkland, the libero.

“Last year was amazing,” Berkland said. “I think we’re just going to build off that. It was an incredible experience.”

This could be, too, if the Clippers can handle skyrocketing expectations.

“This is new for me, too,” said Clubb, who owns a 230-123 record in her first nine seasons. “We met as a staff ... how are we going to manage this? No matter where we’re at, we still have to earn it.

“We have a lot of seniors, and they just want to keep playing together. They don’t want it to end.”

A middle hitter, Beck (3.47 kills, 1.33 blocks per set, .411 kill efficiency last season) stands 6-foot-2; Berkland (4.70 digs per set) is 5-2. They are the anchors of that senior class.

Other prominent seniors are Schrage (5-8, middle hitter, 1.44 kills per set), Addison Gisleson (5-7, outside hitter, 1.37 kills per set) and setters Kenadi Wood (5-5, 3.79 assists per set) and Ashlyn Pitcher (5-9).

  Buy Photo

Sophomore Averie Lower (5-10, outside hitter) was second on the team in kills last year (1.93 per set), and soph Emily Henderson (5-5, setter) led the squad in assists (4.46 per set).

“(Henderson has) gotten a lot better,” Beck said. “We’re staying after practice to get better together.”

Beck, who bypassed the softball season last summer so she could avoid surgery on the ulnar nerve of her right elbow, was fifth in the state (all classes) in blocks.

“Bliss makes my job easy with all of her blocks,” Berkland said. “Our strength is defense.”

Beck can’t block everything, though, and having a back-row ranger like Berkland is a bonus.

“Meg, she’s like a rock back there,” Beck said. “Her range ... she can get to anything on the court. She’s loud and excitable. She has a lot of energy.”

“If not for (Berkland), it would be a pretty quiet gym,” Clubb said.

The Clippers planned for a team-bonding session last Friday at the Berkland residence. Likely, they spent much of their time on the property’s sand volleyball court.

CCA opens the season at home against Center Point-Urbana on Aug. 22. It will open with high hopes, high expectations.

“There’s definitely going to be pressure,” Schrage said. “If we keep our focus on ourselves and not the outside, we should be good.”

Better than good.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com