Backs against the wall, CCA rallies

CEDAR RAPIDS – First-year Clear Creek Amana Coach Jackie Clubb could feel it slipping away. Her Clippers could feel it as well.

At no time this season had the Clippers seen a two-games-to-none lead get tied up and come out victorious.

So when Clubb and her team found themselves in this precarious position in their first state-tournament trip since 1999, there was cause for concern.

Two points from elimination, fifth-ranked Clear Creek Amana scored the last four points of the fifth game and escaped, 25-13, 27-25, 8-25, 22-25, 15-13, against No. 4 Sioux City Heelan in a Class 4A state quarterfinal Tuesday at the U.S. Cellular Center.

'Instead of worrying about keeping our team from coming apart, it goes back to the basics,” Clubb said. 'It goes back to, in five games we're going to identify, stay focused and play defense instead of, ‘Oh my gosh, they're getting ahead.' We don't allow them to think that as much as we can possibly control.”

Clear Creek Amana jumped on Heelan with a 9-2 burst in Game 1 and cruised to a 25-13 win. In Game 2, Heelan scored seven of the first eight points, but the Clippers charged back and reached game point at 24-21. Four-straight Heelan points had the Clippers on the brink of dropping the game, but their response was three of their own to win Game 2, 27-25. Heelan dominated Game 3, 25-8.

'Heelan played great volleyball, they're a great team,” said Clear Creek Amana senior Natalie Brimeyer, who led the Clippers with a match-high 18 kills.

Game 4 was more hotly contested, as the teams shared a 14-14 lead until Heelan ripped off 9 of 11 points for an 23-16 advantage. Two of Ashley Prusha's 12 kills got the Clippers as close as two before losing, 25-22.

'I felt like we were slipping away,” Clear Creek Amana senior Lauren Stopko said. 'But that's what really motivated us to keep going and push further. We're trying to stay calm the whole time and play ball, just keep playing hard with full effort the whole time.”

Heelan kept the pressure on in the fifth game when a kill by Rachel Vondrak gave the Crusaders a 9-5 lead. A Brimeyer kill and a block tied the game at 10-10. Heelan scored three of the next four points before the Clippers rallied with the final four tallies, which included a Prusha kill, the biggest of Stopka's 17 digs and two of Heelan's nine unforced errors in the game.

'We'll take any point they'll give us,” Brimeyer said.

Alyssa Weldon filled the stat sheet with 13 kills and 26 assists for Clear Creek Amana. Junior Grace Hanno had 17 kills for Heelan, which ends its season at 31-14.

'I couldn't be more proud of our girls,” Heelan Coach Mary Miller said. 'When we're down 2-0 like that, a lot of teams would just fold.”

Clear Creek Amana faces top-ranked, defending 4A champion Harlan (39-2) Thursday in a noon semifinal.

'Our middles are going to be a great match,” Clubb said.