No ‘cakewalk’ for unbeaten, top-ranked Clear Creek Amana at the Wamac tournament

You would think, as a divisional champion, a No. 1-ranked team and the owner of a 40-0 record, Clear Creek Amana would get a lollipop in the first round of the Wamac Conference volleyball tournament.

No such luck.

Instead, if the Clippers are going to break through with their first tournament title as a Wamac member, they’re going to have to dance around three significant land mines along the way.

“Yeah, we’ve talked about that,” CCA Coach Jackie Clubb said. “The conference tournament always has tough matches. Everybody is playing well, and we’re using it as preparation for the postseason.”

The eight-team championship bracket begins at 4 p.m. at Marion High School. The final match is scheduled for 7:15.

On the top bracket, 3A No. 2 Mount Vernon (29-3) meets Grinnell (7-18) at 4, then 4A No. 7 Marion (22-11) battles Benton Community (12-22) at 5.

On the other half, CCA faces 3A No. 10 West Delaware (23-13) at 4; 3A No. 8 Center Point-Urbana (23-8) takes on Vinton-Shellsburg (16-22).

CCA’s tough draw — potentially West Delaware, CPU and Mount Vernon in succession — is due to an unbalanced power structure in the divisions this year.

The East Division was deep (fifth- and sixth-place teams Solon and Independence probably are among the top eight squads in the conference) while the West featured CCA, then a huge drop-off.

“Our girls were talking about that,” Marion Coach Roxanne Paulsen said. “(CCA) sure didn’t get a cakewalk.

“And Solon, it’s a shame they’re not in the championship bracket. I don’t know, maybe the conference needs to take a look at how we can tweak this in the future.”

There’s a pretty good chance that if CCA and Mount Vernon reach the championship match, it will be a matchup of two No. 1 teams. Current 3A leader Western Christian suffered a couple of losses in the past weekend, and the Mustangs’ only three losses all season have been against 2A superpower Dike-New Hartford.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union generally posts its rankings on Thursday afternoon.

Elsewhere around the area ...

* Dyersville Beckman and West Liberty claimed River Valley Conference divisional tournament titles on Monday.

The regular-season champion in the North Division, Beckman (27-7) outlasted Monticello, 22-25, 25-3, 15-9, at Bellevue.

Two of the three regular-season South Division co-champions collided in the tournament final at Wellman, with West Liberty (29-10) defeating Mid-Prairie, 25-23, 30-28.

* Cedar Falls won all three of its matches to claim the title of the Mississippi Valley Conference championship pool Tuesday at Dubuque Hempstead.

Cedar Rapids Xavier went 2-1, Linn-Mar 1-2, Hempstead 0-3.

* The Tri-Rivers tournament begins Thursday with pool play at Lisbon, Wheatland, Edgewood and Central City, and concludes with bracket play Saturday at Clarence.

Lisbon (23-5) is the defending champion and possesses the state kill-efficiency leader in Ava Czarnecki (.477). The Lions are co-favorites along with Edgewood-Colesburg (20-13) and Central City (18-10).

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com