Iowa City West scans ticket to Class 5A state volleyball tournament

IOWA CITY — The drought is over for Iowa City West volleyball. And the Trojans earned it.

Class 5A No. 8 West advanced to the state volleyball tournament for the first time since 2016 by dispatching crosstown rival Iowa City Liberty for the third time this season, 25-19, 25-22, 22-25, 25-17 in a regional final Tuesday night at Iowa City West High School.

“We’ve been talking about it all year,” West junior outside hitter Sophia Austen said. “It is really hard to beat your crosstown rivals, let alone three times in two-and-a-half weeks, so that was something. Once we knew those regional pairings, we came in with an intent every single day. They are going to know us and we are going to know them, but we are still going to come out on top and push each other to do stuff differently.”

West (27-5) had dropped six matches in a row to the 10th-ranked Lightning entering this season, so a different approach was in order. That began with a first-year coach in former Iowa City Regina prep Jaedynn Evans, who is just 10 months removed playing her sixth and final year of college volleyball, which culminated in a national runner-up finish for NCAA Division-III Wisconsin-Whitewater.

“They showed up every day,” Evans said. “We had a lot of young talent. It was just kind of putting it all together and finding all of those moving pieces to fit right. But from day one, I knew they had the talent to do it.”

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That “young talent“ was exemplified by freshman hitter Cyan Blommer, who led the Trojans with 21 kills and overtook Austen (269 kills this season) for the team lead with 276 overall.

“Everyone else pushed me really far,” Blommer said. “Everyone pushes me to a higher standard. That helps a lot.”

After cruising in the opening set, West had to fight off a late charge from Liberty (24-11) to claim the second, which carried over into the third as the Lightning were able to avoid the sweep. West regrouped before the fourth set and managed to keep Liberty at bay and avoid a winner-take-all fifth set.

“All week we kind of knew, it is really hard to sweep a team in the (regional) final,” Austen said. “So after we won those first two, obviously our goal was to win that third, but once we lost that third, we were like, ‘We battled hard. We are going to go get this fourth set and we are going to end it here.”

Austen posted 13 kills and 24 digs, while sophomore Izzie McDonald led West with 25 digs. Junior Lila Eastvold distributed 48 assists.

West earned the No. 7 seed in the eight-team state tournament bracket and will play a quarterfinal round match against No. 2 Ankeny Centennial (32-5) on Monday at 12:25 at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

West’s last state appearance in 2016 was upended by Centennial.

“These girls, we are gritty and they are ready to fight,” Austen said. “We are ready to make that run for that state title.”

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