Lewis Central ends Xavier’s state volleyball repeat hopes with a 5-set 4A quarterfinal win

CORALVILLE — It’s not a secret any more if one of the parties divulges what was said.

Brooke Larsen was more than willing to share.

“Coach (Mike Bond) told us in the huddle, ‘They don’t know this, but we’re not losing this game,’” Larsen said.

Bond believed. And the Titans delivered.

Down 11-5 in Game 5, sixth-ranked Lewis Central battled all the way back and toppled No. 3 Cedar Rapids Xavier in a 2-hour, 6-minute Class 4A quarterfinal marathon (25-21, 13-25, 25-19, 22-25, 17-15) at the state volleyball tournament Monday night at Xtream Arena.

“We’ve done this all year long,” said Larsen, whose 19 kills fueled the Titans (32-2). “We’d get down seven, eight, nine points and Coach would tell us, ‘No way we’re going to lose.’”

Monday’s outcome assured a new champion in 4A; Xavier bowed out at 24-7.

“(Lewis Central) has a good team,” Xavier’s Libby Fandel said. “They have a good block. They kept digging. When they were able to serve-receive, they got some big kills.”

Down two sets to one, Xavier put together its best stretch of the night in the late stages of Game 4.

With the Saints in front 17-16, they scored five straight points — Carley Jonker had three kills, Ava Van Berkum one and Taylor Rexroth one — to push the advantage to 22-16. They eventually won the set to force a fifth.

The momentum continued there, for a while. A 9-1 surge turned a 3-1 deficit into a 10-4 lead, and Ava Turner’s block made it 11-5.

Then, “I think we played scared,” setter Molly Garrison said. “That’s about it. We were scared to get a losing run.”

Xavier Coach Amy Weiland said, “(The Titans) started blocking us and we started making some unforced errors. It wasn’t any one person, it wasn’t any one thing.”

The Saints made five errors in a 6-1 Lewis Central run that carved the margin to 12-11.

Lewis Central had a match point at 14-13, but back-to-back kills by Fandel and Turner gave the Saints a chance to close it out at 15-14.

Instead, the Titans scored the final three points.

Ashlynne Havermann and Anna Strohmeier added 11 kills apiece, and the Titans were the more efficient team, .163 to .092.

Xavier had seven kills and 12 errors in Game 5.

Lewis Central will face No. 2 Indianola (37-4) in a semifinal at 12:25 Wednesday afternoon.

Indianola outlasted No. 7 Marion in five sets Monday.

With 28 kills, Fandel had exactly half of Xavier’s total. Rexroth, Jonker and Turner had eight apiece.

Garrison had 45 assists and a team-high 15 digs.

“They were hitting at me so I couldn’t set our middles,” Garrison said.

Despite Monday’s outcome, Garrison called the season “perfect.”

“Our coaches were great. I’m going to miss playing with every single one of these girls,” she said.

Weiland said, “This season was full of a lot of love. Nobody was a problem. People talk all the time about problems, whether it’s the kids or the parents. I didn’t have any of that.”

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com