Hinton moves to semifinals defeating Iowa City Regina in 4 sets

CORALVILLE — The stars delivered.

Iowa City Regina’s Reese Naeve and Hinton’s Bailey Boeve matched each other kill for kill, putting on a show during Tuesday afternoon’s Class 2A quarterfinal match at Xtream Arena.

The difference ended up being the two supporting casts. No. 3 Hinton had an advantage in the size department and it ended up being the difference in a 25-18, 25-17, 20-25, 25-23 win for the Blackhawks.

Hinton (29-2) moves on to a semifinal match-up at 4:25 p.m. on Wednesday against Dike-New Hartford, a straight-set winner over Aplington-Parkersburg.

Boeve, a Creighton signee, missed last season’s tournament with a leg injury. She had 28 kills while Naeve, bound for Iowa State, had 29.

“They both really put on a show,” said Regina Coach Lauren Hansen. “We knew what Bailey would do. Our plan was to try and limit the others and they just ended up having a little too much size for us.”

That size was a pair of freshmen and a senior. Ellie Friessen (6-foot-0) had nine kills while Macie Charlson (6-2) added eight. Senior Karlyn Kovarna also had eight. In contrast, no other Regina player finished with more than four kills

“They definitely made the difference,” said Blackhawk co-coach Kate Ortegren. “That was kind of our game plan going in. Obviously we knew that they had an outstanding player in Reese and we had one with Bailey as well.

“Our other hitters have done such an outstanding job as well this year,” she continued. “So it was nice to be able to have that option to kick it back or go to a quick middle. We knew we needed to use others instead of Bailey to keep them off balance.”

Hinton had a little scare near the end when it appeared Boeve may have injured herself. She said she was starting to cramp up but was able to push through the final few points.

“My teammates did a really good job of picking me up,” she said. “They took some big swings and came up with some really big digs that really helped me.

“The five freshmen we have on the team really stepped up,” Boeve continued. “My sister (Brynlee) plays with me and I’ve grown up playing pepper with them for a long time. I always knew we had something special and could go a long ways with all of them.”

Regina posted the most wins in school history, finishing at 30-14.