Class 4A: Harlan shakes off jitters, beats LeMars for semifinal berth

CEDAR RAPIDS – Coming into the postseason, the Harlan volleyball team sat atop the Class 4A rankings and carried a young, talented squad into the state tournament.

Cyclones Coach Angie Spangenberg is making her third trip with Harlan, and was tired of hearing about how the team had made the dance but not moved on.

Her girls fixed that Tuesday, with a four-set victory over LeMars, 22-25, 25-8, 25-18, 25-20.

'We can't do anything about the past. We've got to take care of business while we're up here,' Spangenberg said. 'We have to stay in the present. If you play well, hopefully you'll move on.'

And move on the Cyclones did, but not without a few jitters to begin the match.

LeMars came out firing and took the first set, 25-22, from a Harlan team trying to get its bearings. Once the Cyclones were able to settle in, however, there was no stopping them.

'I think we just needed to stay in the moment, and I don't think we were,' Spangenberg said. 'I think we made some mistakes. We probably dwelled too much on those mistakes. And then we finally started passing (well). That was the key to everything.

'You could kind of feel it (change) about halfway through that first set, even though we lost that first set. I felt like we played better towards the end and gained some momentum (because) they calmed down.'

The passing, most notably from junior setter Kenzie Swanson, set up Jess Schaben – who is also going to be a Cyclone in college, having verbally committed to Iowa State over the summer – to control much of the match en route to a match-high 33 kills.

Schaben said the nervous feelings were definitely there to start the match, but could see a huge difference from the first to second sets.

'I think we all just had our nerves in us, and once we got out there and started playing more, we all felt more comfortable with each other,' Schaben said. 'It's hard to adjust, but we adjusted and it came out pretty well.'

With her players 'in the moment' and having adjusted to the state tournament stage, Spangenberg is eager to find out just how far her team can go.

After all, she said, there's nothing like on-the-job training to help prime a team for a run at a state championship – starting with a semifinal against Charles City on Thursday.

'We got the experience of winning a match at the state tournament. They've been down here, so they know what it feels like to be out there, they know the noise-level,' Spangenberg said. 'Even though you can try to simulate that in practice, it's not the same. I think that experience will help us going into the semifinals.

'We'll be ready.'