Iowa City Liberty wears the crown in Class 5A volleyball

CORALVILLE — Blocked. Stuffed. Swatted. The Liberty Lightning were victims of all of it in the first set.

Something had to change.

“We had to be smarter,” Coach Allie Kelly said. “We had to trust our instincts. And we got out right sides going.”

The Bolts adjusted, and started avoiding the block. And everything else fell into place from there.

For the first time in school history, Iowa City Liberty has a state-champion team. The top-ranked Lightning topped No. 3 Pleasant Valley in four sets (20-25, 25-17, 25-22, 25-22) for the Class 5A volleyball title Thursday morning at Xtream Arena.

“I’m just really grateful,” Kelly said. “We’ve got a really supportive community. It takes a lot of people to do something of this magnitude. Thankfully, we have them here.”

Cassidy Hartman declared after the semifinal match that her best performance of the tournament was yet to come, and the University of Northern Iowa commit delivered with 24 kills.

“It took us a while to get used to the crowd, the vibe,” said Hartman, the 5A all-tournament captain. “Once we got going, we were on for the rest of the (match).

“We made history today for Liberty. To represent our community, to do it in front of our students ... we feel the love of our school, and to give back, it’s an amazing feeling.”

Hartman was joined on the all-tournament team by Liberty’s Shelby Kimm, Pleasant Valley’s Chloe Cline and Halle Vice, plus Jaeden Pratt of Ankeny Centennial, Lily Dykstra of Urbandale and Kaelyn Wieland of West Des Moines Valley.

Liberty (33-8) committed 12 attack errors — compared to 11 kills — in the first set, and Pleasant Valley (29-7) was directly responsible for eight of those errors, via blocks.

Six-foot-5 Izzy Van DeWiele had two of those blocks in a five-point Spartans run to close the set.

“It wasn’t who was hitting. It was how we were hitting,” Lilah Van Scoyoc said. “We had to mix up our shots, get some tips and put them on their heels.”

The Spartans had just five blocks in the final three sets, and the momentum shifted Liberty’s way.

Game 2 was close for a while, but an 8-1 surge put the Lightning in command, 22-12.

The third set was a thriller, with neither team leading by more than two points until late.

At 19-19, Hartman sandwiched a kill and a block around a Pleasant Valley error for a 22-19 advantage, then the Bolts were able to play the sideout game to perfection the rest of the way.

The Spartans held a 21-20 edge in Game 4, but Van Scoyoc had a couple of kills and Hartman added another in a four-point run that got the Lightning to championship point.

“Cassidy and Shelby are amazing,” Van Scoyoc said. “With them, it easy to forget about our right side. I’m kind of like that secret weapon.”

Van Scoyoc counted 14 kills to go with 24 from Hartman and 17 from Kimm.

Pleasant Valley saved one match point, then Hartman delivered on the next opportunity.

And in the program’s sixth year of existence, the Lightning struck for a title.

In the past four years — the Hartman/Kimm Era — Liberty compiled a 125-19 record. And now, it’s complete.

“I don’t know how to describe it,” Kimm said. “I kind of knew we could do it. We had to trust ourselves.

“To be the first team at Liberty to win it all, to have that label, it’s amazing.”

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