AGWSR topples North Tama with stunning 5th set rally in state volleyball tournament

CORALVILLE — No. 2 North Tama had the glossy record, 39 wins in 43 matches.

Ackley AGWSR was a sub-.500 team.

So the Redhawks rolled through with no problems, right?

Guess again.

AGWSR did not look like a team that entered Tuesday night's Class 1A quarterfinal match with an 18-23 record. Even as the Cougars found themselves down 13-5 in the fifth set, the confidence never wavered.

“The biggest thing is that we didn't want to end our season playing poorly,” AGWSR sophomore Trevyn Smith said. “We told ourselves we had to battle for every point because we had nothing to lose.”

And battle, they did.

No. 14 AGWSR scored the final 10 points to close out an improbable 25-21, 11-25, 25-27, 25-14, 15-13 win over North Tama at Xtream Arena to earn a berth in the semifinals.

Senior Brynn Smith said teams can be deceived by the Cougars' record. They play in the rugged North Iowa Cedar League that saw seven of its teams qualify for the state tournament.

“I think everyone looks at our record and thinks they can beat us easily,” Brynn Smith said. “If you dig a little deeper and look at our schedule, it makes a lot more sense as to why we have the record we do.

“We play tough teams every week to prepare us for this. We knew we were capable of winning.”

Head Coach Jill Smith gave all the credit to her players.

“Coming into the postseason, we talked about our regular season as experience,” she said. “We played a lot of really good teams. There were some matches I thought we should have come out on top and we didn't but we always battled. We didn't talk about wins and losses coming into the postseason.”

AGWSR rallied to win the first set and was never in Set 2. When North Tama rallied to win the third set, the Cougars could have folded. Instead, they used a 13-0 run to take control of the fourth set.

Coach Smith had used both of her timeouts and could only watch as her team found itself two points from elimination.

“We've talked about playing one point at a time all season,” she said. “Of course North Tama had the momentum, then we got one side out, then another point and you could really see the confidence surging at that point.”

Brynn Smith led the AGWSR attack with 28 kills and led the defense with 16 digs. Trevyn Smith had four ace serves.

Shae Ewoldt led North Tama (39-5) with 18 kills.