Decisive close by Katie Scheckel sends Pella past conference-rival Norwalk

CORALVILLE — Just call her Katie the Closer, even if she wanted to deflect the credit.

“Honestly, it’s all my teammates,” Pella senior Katie Scheckel said after her late barrage of kills. “We had energy all around the court, and our freshman setter was putting up some great balls.”

Scheckel collected four kills and a block in Pella’s decisive surge, and the third-ranked Dutch topped No. 6 Norwalk in a Class 4A quarterfinal (25-22, 29-31, 25-17, 25-21) at the state volleyball tournament Monday night at Xtream Arena.

The Dutch (32-10) trailed the fourth set 19-16 and were facing the prospect of a 15-point winner-take-all sprint against their Little Hawkeye Conference rivals.

Scheckel — and her mates — wouldn’t let it happen.

“We knew it was going to be a dogfight,” she said. “(Norwalk) is a super-good team.”

At 19-19, Scheckel’s block put the Dutch ahead for good, then she added a kill to make it 21-19.

Back-to-back Scheckel slams got Pella to the brink at 23-20, then her 16th and final termination of the match sent the Dutch to the semifinals.

There, they will face No. 2 Sioux Center (29-4) at 12:25 Wednesday afternoon. Pella was the 4A runner-up last year.

Norwalk (29-12) won the most dramatic of the four sets despite missing serves at 24-24, 25-25 and 26-26.

Trailing 29-28, the Warriors got a kill from Hadley Michael, and two consecutive kills from Ava Carlson to square the match.

But Pella ended Game 3 with five straight points to pull away, then surged again at the end of the finals.

Abbie Brand added 14 kills for the Dutch, Brooke Schulte posted 12. Julia Settles counted 31 assists, Scheckel 15.

Elle Hatlevig led Norwalk with 19 kills.

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com