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HCHS junior Jacie White (left) hugs teammate Sadie Christensen after the Cyclones' win at Denison.
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Keeping their season alive with a match-ending 6-0 spurt, the Cyclones outlasted the Monarchs in a wild Class 3-A, regional volleyball quarterfinal Monday night, winning 16-25, 25-15, 19-25, 25-17, 15-9, at Denison.
HCHS improved to 20-14 overall and will now face No. 13-ranked Storm Lake in a Region 1 semifinal Thursday night at 7:00. The site of the match was shifted from Storm Lake to East Sac County High School in Lake View.
Even though Monday's match wasn't always pretty, Cyclone head coach Julie DuVal was pleased to advance after losing two of the first three games and falling behind 5-0 in game four. HCHS also showed overall improvement from its 0-3 loss to Lewis Central in last week's regular season finale.
"It was a good team effort," said DuVal. It's a step better than last week, so if we just keep stepping up the ladder . . . every game is going to get tougher and better.
"It was fun. Down 5-0 in game four, to come back and get that was huge and just keep battling."
None of the five sets went down to the wire, but it appeared that game five would do just that when the two teams tied at every point between 1 and 9.
Back-to-back kills by Brooke Leinen and Amanda Petersen put the Cyclones up 9-8 before a missed serve - the team's fourth of the set and 17th of the night - deadlocked the score for the final time. Denison then returned the favor with one of its own frequent serving errors and Sadie Christensen served out the match for HCHS - her second key serving run of the night.
With the score 12-9, Jacie White spiked her 18th kill, Leinen tapped one deep for her 11th kill (a career high) and Christensen turned out the lights with an ace.
In a match where the Cyclones served just 82.7 percent as a team with only six aces, Christensen was a steadying asset from the back line, going 14-for-14 with a pair of aces. The junior also served nine straight points late in game four as HCHS finished with a 12-1 flourish.
"She's always been consistent. Same with attacking - very consistent," said DuVal, noting that Christensen's serving style is different than what D-S may be used to facing in practice.
"It's a well-placed serve; it's got a lot of float on it," she said. "It's really not aggressive, but notice how (Denison's girls) serve top spin. They don't have anybody that really serves kind of a float, and that was really helping us."
Down two games to one and 0-5 in game four, the Cyclones got a big lift from another junior as White provided several lethal left-side attacks on her way to seven kills in the set. She spiked four of those kills in a 10-4 run that put the Cyclones up by one, but the Monarchs responded to take a 15-11 lead. White added three more kills as HCHS scored 14 of the final 16 points.
Sophomore Sarah Konz stepped up from the outside as well with nine total kills, including three quick ones that helped finish off game two and two more timely spikes in game four.
"We got some big rips from Jacie and Konz there that made a difference to get us some momentum," DuVal said. "And we started setting the ball a little bit better and got some 5's that were actually out there and off the net.
"Jacie was really big. As the night went on (she) got better. And in game five it was funny - during a timeout I said something about, 'who knows what's going to happen next?' Jacie goes, 'We do coach, we're winning!'"
Just before that timeout, White was also at the center of a key game-five moment that did not involve a kill. With HCHS leading 12-9, White appeared to make a diving pancake dig of a Lady Monarch spike. Initially, the officials blew the play dead and awarded Denison a kill, but after some discussion a replay of the point was called. White killed the next point to keep momentum with the Cyclones.
"We were really fortunate they called that as a replay because she did get it, and that was really a dagger for them at that point when somebody can get one of (those) up," DuVal said. It's unfortunate that they mis-called it the first time, but the ball never lies so if you score on the next point you know that it was supposed to be."
Games one and two were the most lopsided of the night, starting with D-S bolting to a 14-4 lead in the opener. HCHS pulled within 21-16 before the Monarchs scored the next four points.
Game two included five missed serves by Denison and an 11-2 start by the Cyclones, who eventually won 25-15.
Game three was close for most of the way, with D-S generally holding a slim lead and getting two big kills late from outside hitter Kayla Krohnke to finish off a 25-19 victory.
Krohnke slammed a team-high 16 kills for the Monarchs, who finished with a deceptive final match record of 7-22. However, during the final two sets, Krohnke was much quieter at the net as the Cyclones kept her busy receiving serves and thus kept the Monarchs out of system.
"By making her move on serve receive, we made it difficult for them to get her the ball where she needed it," DuVal noted.
For HCHS, senior libero Mary Kaufmann had a near-perfect night of serve receive, recording 14 "3-passes" in 17 attempts for an efficiency of .912. Danielle Stewart also had a productive night passing (.737), and Bailey McGrath and Leah Miller were not far behind.
Kaufmann made 19 digs on the night, followed by Stewart and Leinen with 14 apiece. Leinen had 27 assists, Stewart had 15 assists and Jessica Ring led the team with three blocks.
The winner of Thursday's HCHS vs. Storm Lake match will almost certainly face top-ranked Sioux City Heelan in the Region 1 final Tuesday night at 7:00. The regional final is currently slated to be played in Orange City, but that site might be subject to change if the Cyclones were victorious on Thursday.
HCHS 3, Denison-Schleswig 2
(16-25, 25-15, 19-25, 25-17, 15-9)
HCHS STATISTICS
Serving: 81/98 (82.7%), 6 aces, 0.353 ace/error ratio
Sadie Christensen 14/14, 2 aces; Bailey McGrath 13/14, 1 ace; Leah Miller 11/12; Brooke Leinen 19/23; Amanda Petersen 9/12, 1 ace; Jessica Ring 6/6; Danielle Stewart 5/10, 2 aces; Mary Kaufmann 3/5; Sarah Konz 1/1; Jacie White 0/1.
Serve Receive Efficiency: .765 (66 attempts)
Kaufmann .912 (17 att.), Leinen .833 (3 att.), Stewart .737 (19 att.), McGrath .692 (13 att.), Miller .679 (14 att.).
Attacks: 118/150, 52 kills (10.4 per game), .133 kill efficiency
White 40/47, 18 kills (.234 eff.); Leinen 18/24, 11 kills (.208 eff.); Konz 18/26, 9 kills (.038 eff.); Stewart 12/15, 4 kills (.067 eff.); Ring 13/17, 4 kills; A. Petersen 11/14, 3 kills; Trisha Nowatzke 2/2, 2 kills (1.000 eff.); Christensen 4/5, 1 kill.
Assists: 45 total (9.0 per game)
Leinen 27, Stewart 15, Kaufmann 1, A. Petersen 1, Konz 1.
Blocks: 10 assists (2.0 per game)
Ring 3, Stewart 2, Christensen 1, A. Petersen 1, White 1, Leinen 1, Konz 1.
Digs: 79 total (15.8 per game)
Kaufmann 19, Stewart 14, Leinen 14, McGrath 9, White 8, Christensen 5, Ring 5, Miller 4, Konz 1.
Class 3-A, Region 1 Volleyball
Regional Quarterfinals: Monday, October 26
MOC-Floyd Valley def. Sergeant Bluff-Luton: 26-24, 25-11, 25-13.
Sioux City Bishop Heelan def. Le Mars: 25-12, 25-23, 25-15.
Harlan Community def. Denison-Schleswig: 16-25, 25-15, 19-25, 25-17, 15-9.
Storm Lake def. Spencer: 28-26, 25-19, 24-26, 25-20.
Regional Semifinals: Thursday, October 29
MOC-Floyd Valley vs. Sioux City Bishop Heelan (at Le Mars), 7:00 p.m.
Harlan Community vs. Storm Lake (at Lake View; East Sac. H.S.), 7:00 p.m.
Regional Final: Tuesday, November 3
at Orange City, 7:00 p.m. (Winner advances to State Tournament - Nov. 11-14)
(Regional Final site may be subject to change if HCHS beats Storm Lake)
Class 3-A, Region 2 Volleyball
Regional Quarterfinals: Monday, October 26
Creston def. Glenwood: 17-25, 25-15, 25-19, 25-19.
Atlantic def. Winterset: 25-23, 15-25, 25-20, 25-23.
Dallas Center-Grimes def. Perry: 27-25, 22-25, 25-22, 25-19.
Carroll Public def. Jefferson-Scranton: 25-15, 25-11, 25-17.
Class 4-A, Region 2 Volleyball
Regional Quarterfinal: Monday, October 26
Lewis Central def. C.B. Thomas Jefferson: 24-26, 25-15, 25-20, 24-26, 15-6.
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