Unbeaten Dike-New Hartford gets early wake-up call, then rolls to state volleyball semifinals

CORALVILLE — For much of the first set of Tuesday's Class 2A state volleyball quarterfinal, Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont stayed right with No. 1 Dike-New Hartford.

The underdog Rockets were two points from taking the set from a team that has lost just one set this year coming into state.

From that point on, the Wolverines showed why they are likely the best team in the state, regardless of class. With the game tied at 23, Jaydn Petersen came through with an ace serve and Shannon Moorman followed with a block to seal the game.

Dike-New Hartford followed that up with two impressive sets to finish off a 25-23, 25-5, 25-12 victory at Xtream Arena.

Coach Diane Harms’ Wolverines (48-0) will play Wednesday in the semifinals at 4 p.m. They are in search of their third title in four years after being denied in last year's final against Western Christian. EBF retires at 26-8.

“You know when you have new people coming down, playing in a new environment you can expect to have some nerves,” Harms said “We knew coming in (EBF) was going to give us a good push and we just had to be ready to figure things out.”

Once they figured things out, the Wolverines made quick work of the Rockets.

Petersen said the first set was a wake-up call but added past state experiences were beneficial to the team.

“We just lean on each other out there,” she said. “When one person wasn't doing very well, somebody else would step it up. We just had each other's back out there.”

Harms said the key to the Wolverines’ improved play in the final two sets was simply a matter of paying a little better attention to detail and cleaning up some errors.

Petersen agreed with her coach.

“We just did a better job taking care of our game,” she said. “We had some errors in the first set and we did a much better job of picking those up and getting into our offense a little better.”

Petersen paced the Wolverines with 16 kills. Her sister, Payton, added 12 and Maryn Bixby had 10. Molly Shafer led EBF with 12 kills.