'Unbelievable:' J-Hawks stun West

IOWA CITY -- Mary Kay Van Oort is a positive person. An optimist.

But she's also a realist.

"I just wanted these girls to have a decent season," she said. "I wanted them to win a few matches, maybe finish close to .500."

She admitted, she never envisioned this. She didn't envision her team, engulfed by a student body that stormed the court after a huge win.

Then again, who did?

Amanda Ollinger slammed 44 kills as Cedar Rapids Jefferson rallied to shock Iowa City West in five sets (25-23, 16-25, 19-25, 27-25, 15-13) in a Class 5A regional semifinal volleyball match Thursday night at West High School.

"Unbelievable," Ollinger said, using a word that would have accurately reflected the feelings of just about everybody in the West gym. "Last year, we could barely win a game, let alone a match."

Mary Kay changed the whole program. This is an amazing feeling.

"Jefferson (19-21) advances to Tuesday's regional final against No. 5 Pleasant Valley (27-6), a three-set winner over Cedar Rapids Washington. Now, let this sink in: One more win, and the J-Hawks advance to the state tournament Nov. 12-15 at the U.S. Cellular Center.

Last year, the J-Hawks were 4-33.

Jefferson libero Keke Pledge used that same word: "It's unbelievable. It's amazing. We have coaches that care about us, and look how far we've come."

The J-Hawks fought off two match points in Game 4, then rallied from a 10-4 deficit in the finale. Ollinger had six kills from that point on, including three in a row at the end.

Her jaw dropped when told of her final kill total.

"Oh, OK," she said. "Really? I would have guessed around 20."

West retired at 26-10."I said that if it went five (games), they were probably going to beat us," said West Coach Kathy Bresnahan. "We picked a bad night to play our worst match of the year. You wouldn't have known we had a scouting report, because we didn't execute it."

Give Jefferson credit, and it wasn't just Ollinger. They played lights-out defense. Their libero was great tonight.

"That would be Pledge."

"I wasn't thinking. I was just going after everything I could," she said.

A 6-foot-1 sophomore outside hitter, Ollinger has basketball scholarship offers from Iowa and Drake. Bresnahan said, "She's a Big Ten-caliber (volleyball) player."

She smoked six kills in the first set, won when the Women of Troy turned error-prone at the end and Jefferson rallied from a 21-16 deficit. She added nine in the second, seven in the third, but West won both of those games.

And she was just warming up. She had 14 kills in Game 4, including a couple of back-row jobs for the final two points.

Jefferson erased a 20-16 deficit in the fourth game to extend the match, then rallied from that 10-4 disadvantage in the fifth to win it.

Ollinger's laser caught a West backrow player in the jaw to bring the J-Hawks within 10-6, and the comeback was on. Back-to-back kills made it 12-10.

Laynie Whitehead blocked Ollinger to give West a 13-11 edge, then a ball handling error by the Women of Troy gave Jefferson a shot at 13-12.

Ollinger took advantage with three straight kills, prompting a crowd of about 30 Jefferson students to sprint onto the court.

Quite a scene. A scene nobody could have imagined before the season. Not even Van Oort.

"We had the benefit of being the underdog," she said. "But once we got to the fifth game, we didn't feel like underdogs any more. It just felt like two good teams, battling it out."

Kaylie Zitek dished out 56 assists for the J-Hawks.Mikaela Morgan led West with 18 kills, Mollie Mason posted 14. Whitehead collected 10 kills and 26 assists. 

CEDAR RAPIDS JEFFERSON 3, IOWA CITY WEST 2

Game

1

2

3

4

5

Cedar Rapids Jefferson (19-21)

25

16

19

27

15

Iowa City West (26-10)

23

25

25

25

13

 Serving: Jefferson 94-100 (.940), West 106-113 (.938)

Aces: Jefferson 8 (Keke Pledge 3), West 5 (Toni Martins, Madi Miller 2)

Kills: Jefferson 60 (Amanda Ollinger 44), West 55 (Mikaela Morgan 18)

Assists: Jefferson 58 (Kaylie Zitek 56), West 47 (Layne Whitehead 26)

Blocks: Jefferson 2 (Cierra Maas, Ollinger), West 13 (Morgan, Ali Tauchen 4)