WILTON — The image of the night? Wilton players doing a spin-around after every ace, 14 of them in all.
The symbol of the night? A student hoisting a custodian’s broom after it was over.
Just another Wilton sweep.
Kelsey Drake accumulated 15 kills, and Class 2A second-ranked Wilton made quick work of 3A No. 6 West Liberty, 25-17, 25-9, 25-23, Thursday night at Wilton High School, capturing the River Valley Conference South Division championship.
“We’ve been waiting for this night,” Drake said. “To finally be here, it’s amazing.”
A masked-up crowd of about 1,000 nearly filled the gym.
“The energy really helped,” Drake said. “We’ve got a positive mindset anyway, and that really helped.”
Wilton (24-0, 6-0 RVC South) improved its set record to 55-0. It’s a team that, as of now, fully looks capable of challenging the 10-year Western Christian/Dike-New Hartford state stranglehold in 2A.
The Beavers had half of their aces in the middle-set rout.
“We spend a lot of time on that in practice,” Drake said. “Lots of serving, lots of serve-receive.”
West Liberty (18-1, 5-1) had an opportunity to extend the match, rallying from a pair of six-point deficits to take a 23-22 lead in Game 3. But Drake’s kill got the Beavers even, an attack error moved them to match point, and a block by Carly Puffer ended it.
Puffer added nine kills and four blocks, and Ella Caffery posted 24 assists.
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Macy Daufeldt, a junior and a Drake University commit, paced the Comets with 11 kills. Martha Pace added eight.
“We tried a lot of new things tonight, and nothing worked,” Daufeldt said. “It was kind of crazy. We were all over the place. We couldn’t get into a rhythm.”
Wilton broke away from an 8-8 tie in the opener, scoring five straight points and 10 of 12. Game 2 was a rout, plain and simple, behind the Beavers’ barrage of aces. After each, the Beavers did a 360-degree twirl.
Drake had four of the aces; three of her teammates added three apiece.
WILTON 3, WEST LIBERTY 0 (25-17, 25-9, 25-23)
At Wilton
Serving: West Liberty 45-50 (.900), Wilton 62-72 (.861)
Aces: West Liberty 2 (Brooklyn Buysse 2), Wilton 14 (Kelsey Drake 4)
Kills: West Liberty 27 (Macy Daufeldt 11), Wilton 31 (Drake 15)
Assists: West Liberty 26 (Buysse 21), Wilton 29 (Ella Caffery 24)
Blocks: West Liberty 3 (Isabel Morrison 2), Wilton 5 (Carly Puffer 4)
Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com