Wolverines state bound

As an emotional Connie Blank celebrated with her team following East Mills victory over Fremont-Mills in the Class 1A, Region 2 finals, she was asked what this win means for her program.

“That we’re here to stay,” the coach said, her comments drowned out by her cheering team and a raucous crowd that had joined the celebration on the court.

With the 25-13, 20-25, 25-23, 25-15 victory over the rival Knights at Riverside High School Tuesday night, East Mills earned its second straight trip to the Iowa State Volleyball Tournament and a historic place in Wolverines’ volleyball lore.

“This is an awesome feeling,” Blank said. “I’m very happy for the girls to be able to go back to state. They played great.”

East Mills, the No. 7 seed, will open state tournament play Thursday against No. 2 seeded LeMars Gehlen Catholic (27-4) at 6 p.m. at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.

In the regional final, the Knights never made it easy for the Wolverines.

The two teams split a pair of matches during the regular season and that back-and-fourth battle continued in a scrappy affair of two fairly evenly matched teams Tuesday.

After playing even the first game and taking a 10-8 lead early, the Wolverines rattled off six straight points as part of an 8-1 run to take a 18-9 lead. Fremont-Mills coach Tracy Malcom used two timeouts in the streak but couldn’t break up East Mills’ run as they out-hit and out-scored the Knights, scoring 15 of the final 20 points in the 25-13 winner.

But the Knights tightened up their defense in set two and rallied when they got down 14-10. A 6-0 F-M run keyed the 25-20 win.

With the match evened up, the third set wouldn’t decide the night, but it would go far in deciding the momentum.

The Wolverines shot out to 12-6 and 20-15 leads only to have the Knights scrap back into it. The latter of those rallies trimmed East Mills’ margin to 20-19 and convinced Blank to call a timeout to calm her team.

The breather worked.

East Mills came out and scored three kills in four chances and pulled away for a narrow 25-23 winner.

“It was huge for us,” Blank said. “To be able to hold them off and get that third game in a match like this, it was huge.”

The Wolverines never trailed in the fourth set capper, leading by as many seven en route to the 25-15 win.

“I felt, like in most of our games, we played better as the match went on,” Blank said.

Nerves, Malcom felt, were a factor in her team’s slow start against the Wolverines.

“I felt that we played a bit nervous the first set and regained our composure in the second,” Malcom said. “We knew this was going to be a tough battle all night long, and we needed to play hard the whole match to be able to take away the win.”

 After winning the second set, Malcom said she felt like her team had the momentum. She also stressed to her team the importance of taking care of the ball and limiting errors. 

“Unfortunately for us, things just didn't go our way and we weren't able to capitalize on the things we needed to do to win the ball game,” Malcom said. 

The Knights close their season with a record 22-14.

Following a mid-season low that saw this drop matches in a row, the Knights won nine of their last 12 and reached the regional finals for the first time in three years.

“Throughout the season we definitely became stronger as the year went on,” Malcom said. “The girls were realizing that they could go far in the post-season bracket and could really do big things if they set their minds to it.  This team has a ton of potential and I couldn't be more proud of each and every member of this group. 

“No matter what their role was, they all made a contribution this year, and I couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to share this season with. 

The Wolverines now turn their focus to Thursday’s state quarterfinals against LeMars Gehlen Catholic. The Jays finished second in the War Eagle conference this season. They are led by senior hitters Katie Peters (223 kills) and Katelyn Langel (169 kills).

“We wanted this so bad,” Blank said of her team’s return trip to state after last year’s first round sweep by eventual champion Janesville. “We know we can do that we did last year. Going back, we want to play better right off the bat.”